That’s A Wrap! 2023 BCTP Symposium

BCTP Trainees share their summary of the symposium.

The Bioengineering Cardiovascular Training Program (BCTP) symposium is a day-long event organized by current BCTP trainees at the University of Washington. Our aim is to curate a diverse lineup of presentations that showcase cutting-edge research and provide a platform for sharing our own findings with the university community. 

We were delighted to commence the symposium by welcoming Dr. Elenora (Ele) Grandi as our keynote speaker, who delivered an outstanding presentation on her research concerning sex-specific predictive models for cardiac health. Dr. Ele Grandi’s work provided crucial insights into the need for increased female representation in both basic science and clinical studies, highlighting the profound implications in cardiotoxicity risk assessment. Her work delved into algorithms that translate action potential morphologies between species and sexes, while also exploring altered calcium dynamics in disease states. The selection of Dr. Ele Grandi as our keynote speaker reflects both her early career achievements and significant contributions to the field, as well as our commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion while advancing research. We wholeheartedly encourage future BCTP awardees to follow suit and invite speakers who align with their personal research interests, fostering a collaborative and dynamic academic environment that drives progress and embraces inclusivity.

Following the keynote speaker are the BCTP awardee talks given by Ariana Frey from the Zheng lab, Hao Zhou from the Scatena and Giachelli lab, Casey Kiyohara from the Thomas lab, Savannah Bifulco from the CardSS lab, and Kerry Kao from the Regnier lab. Ariana presented her work with fabricating and characterizing human microvascular grafts to enhance post-injury perfusion and angiogenesis. Hao shared his work with optimizing cardiopulmonary bypass in pediatric patients using an in vitro model.

Casey talked about her progress in characterizing the entry of SARS-CoV-2 mediated by antibody and conformational regulation.

Savannah shared her computational work in identifying risk factors of atrial fibrillation and predicting post-ablation recurrence using machine learning. Kerry elaborated on the mechanisms of contractile dysfunction for the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy caused by the MYH7 G256E mutation.

The awardees all presented high-quality research with confidence and received good feedback from the audience. The various topics chosen by the trainees showcased the broad bandwidth of research supported by the BCTP.

Anastasiia Stratiievska, PhD, a BCTP alum and research scientist at Bloodworks Northwest, gave a talk on the ways in which platelets sense cold, discussing an ion channel which may be responsible, and the potential for cold-stored platelets to improve treatments.

Joe Powers PhD, an assistant professor in the department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology and Mechanical Engineering at UW, gave a talk on his work investigating biomechanical signals which regulate cardiac structure and function. Both of these talks were highly informative and it was inspiring to see the great work that past BCTP awardees and community members have gone on to do! The audience had many questions about the impressive research presented, leading to very interesting conversations with the speakers.

Our guest speakers offer career advice on a panel, along with additional BCTP alum Molly Mollica, assistant professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (beginning in August), and Meredith Redd, acting instructor in Bioengineering at UW. Molly, Joe, and Meredith all offered detailed perspectives and advice on pursuing the academic career path, including professional development toward becoming faculty, the application process, and the transition from trainee to junior faculty. Anastasiia offered a unique perspective, contrasting the role of a research scientist to that of faculty. The panelists also offered universal advice for all graduate students, reminding us to not compare ourselves to others and to build and utilize our networks for post-graduation opportunities. It was so valuable to have these panelists share their wisdom for general questions about their career paths and also provide feedback about individual audience members’ specific questions and goals.

The symposium ended with a bustling poster session with 24 presenters. Representatives from 12 different labs in the departments of Bioengineering, Neurology, Medicine, and Pathology were present. Work from the poster presenters, a mixture of undergrads, graduate students, and post-docs, showcased the diverse cardiovascular research done at the University of Washington. Topics ranged from basic science–such as designing sensors to study cardiomyocyte physiology–to more translational research–such as developing polymers to treat traumatic injury. One presenter gave her comments about the poster session. “The poster session was very insightful as a first-time poster presenter,” said Carina Mae, a member of the Regnier Lab. “I got to talk to PIs that I don’t normally talk with. They had questions that will help me think more deeply about my research.” Overall, the poster session was a success with mingling from symposium attendees and conversation about great science. We’re looking forward to seeing how the symposium will grow in the upcoming years!