Join us for our next webinar on February 18 at 1:00pmET featuring Karen Hirschi, University of Virginia. Her presentation is titled "Regulation of Endothelial Cell Specialization"

For more details and to register,

On March 4, we will welcome Guillermo Oliver of Northwestern University.  His presentation is titled, "Lymphatics in organ growth and repair." More information is here

Mark your calendars for these webinars. And bookmark this page on our web site for more exciting 2021 webinars: https://www.navbo.org/events/webinars.

NAVBO members can attend Experimental Biology 2021 as guests of the American Society for Investigative Pathology. NAVBO is sponsoring a session called, The “Ins” and “Outs” of Vascular Inflammation, organized by William Muller, Northwestern University, featuring speakers: Klaus Ley, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; Sussan Nourshargh, Barts and The London School of Medicine; and Ira Tabas, Columbia University Medical Center. This session will take place on Tuesday, April 27 from 2:00 to 5:00pm EST.

Please join us!

Register for the meeting here.

"Arterialization requires the timely suppression of cell growth" 

Authors: Wen Luo, Irene Garcia-Gonzalez, Macarena Fernández-Chacón, Verónica Casquero-Garcia, Maria S Sanchez-Muñoz, Severin Mühleder, Lourdes Garcia-Ortega, Jorge Andrade, Michael Potente, Rui Benedito

Nature 589, 437–441 (2021).

Journal Clubs are limited to active/current NAVBO members. The registration link can be found in the Journal Club's forum on our web site:  https://www.navbo.org/forum/02-21journal-club. You can also post comments, questions, etc. here before the presentation so that they can be addressed during the presentation and of course following the presentation to continue the conversation.

This is an opportunity to organize and moderate a session for NAVBO's New Online Symposia Series. We are seeking proposals from current regular members.

Our online meeting formats have proven to be very successful both before and during the pandemic; we believe that they will continue to be successful!

For several years we have sought session proposals for inclusion in the annual meeting. However, this limited us to choosing only one or two proposals for presentation. By moving this function to a bimonthly online forum, we will broaden the scope of the audience, provide opportunities to more members and provide the much requested free time to the annual meeting attendees.

We are asking our current regular members* to propose a 1-1.5 hour session with three speakers in a field that is relevant to the vascular biology community. Proposals will be reviewed and selected by a committee.

We believe that this will be a great way to cover the broad scope of material within the vascular biology field.

Submit your proposal today at:

(if the pdf doesn't open automatically, click the download icon within your browser, then choose Open with Adobe Acrobat)

* Current regular members: independent investigators whose membership is up to date.

This month we are highlighting the lab of Dr. Song Hu, who is an Associate Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Find out more about Dr. Hu's lab at https://www.navbo.org/membership/members-labs/968-lab012021

Lessons Learned (from the January 14 issue)

First, I want to thank the NAVBO Education Committee for inviting me to contribute to the Lessons Learned series, which gives me an opportunity to reflect on my professional development in the past few years during this unusual holiday season.

I started my own research program at the University of Virginia in 2013 and was recently recruited back to my alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. I am an imaging scientist and biomedical engineer by training, and I am thankful to my mentors, collaborators, and colleagues at Washington University and the University of Virginia, who introduced me to cerebrovascular and cardiovascular research and have helped me leverage the impact of our imaging technologies in these exciting fields.

Making the transition from a trainee in a well-established lab to a junior PI who was expected to build a new research program from scratch is probably one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced in my career. Looking back, I have made some right moves but also many mistakes. I would like to take this opportunity to share some of them with those who are expecting or in the process of this transition.

Establish your own niche as early as possible. One question that you might have been repeatedly asked during faculty interviews is how you will distinguish yourself from your mentors (and peers). Indeed, identifying and establishing your own niche early in your career is key to a successful transition to an independent PI. One important piece of advice I have received is that you want to work on something that only you can do or you can do best.

Read more from Dr. Hu on our web site as he discusses, being focused but open-minded when starting your research program, not letting money sway your hiring decision,

finding the right balance between hands-on and hands-off mentoring, being strategic when expanding your research program, and letting application drive technology development.

You can view all of the Lessons Learned by visiting our web site. Go to https://www.navbo.org/resources/lessons-learned

The PRIDE Summer Institute Program in Cardiovascular Disease Comorbidities, Genetics and Epidemiology to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research is now accepting applications. Space is limited for the 2021 mentored summer training programs so apply early!

Eligible applicants are junior-level faculty or scientists with a background that is under-represented in the biomedical or health sciences, and are United States Citizens or Permanent Residents. Research interests should be compatible with those of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) disorders.

Our All-Expense paid Summer Institute program with effective mentored training opportunities to enhance the research skills and to promote the scientific and career development of trainees with a research interest in Cardiovascular disease Comorbidities, Genetics and Epidemiology.

Trainees will learn effective strategies for preparing, submitting and obtaining external grant funding for research, including extensive tips on best practices.

Martijn Cox, Xeltis BV

Katrien De Bock, ETH Zürich

Luisa DiPietro, UIC College of Dentistry

Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Anali Iglesias Gonzalez, Florida International University

Kelli Jablon, Tulane University

Helle Jørgensen, University of Cambridge

Celeste Nelson, Princeton University

Josef Penninger, University of British Columbia

Manu Platt, Georgia Tech

Rhonda Prisby, University of Texas at Arlington

Andy Y. Shih, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Toshiharu Shinoka, Nationwide Children's Hospital

If you have news to share with your colleagues, send it to membership@navbo.org

The endothelium forms a selective barrier between circulating blood or lymph and surrounding tissue. Endothelial cells play an essential role in vessel homeostasis, and identification of these cells is critical in vascular biology research. However, characteristics of endothelial cells differ depending on the location and type of blood or lymph vessel. Read more

In vascular research, clinical samples and samples from animal models are often used together to foster translation of preclinical findings to humans. General concepts of endothelia and murine‐specific endothelial phenotypes were discussed in part 1 of this two part series. Here, in part 2, we present a comprehensive overview of human‐specific endothelial phenotypes. Read more

Anteromedial bowing and shortening of the tibia are intrinsic features of limbs with congenital fibular deficiency (CFD). Tibial bowing occurs more frequently when the fibula is radiographically absent rather than deficient.  Read more

Collaborative Research Award - Designed for team research that requires involvement of multiple institutions or muIti-disciplinary researchers. Applications that involve current LF grantees receive priority review. Up to $250,000 over two years.

Proof of Concept Award - Designed to support development of preliminary data for highly innovative hypotheses. Open to investigators of any career stage or background. Successful awards are eligible for streamlined award renewal. Up to $125,000 for one year

Mentored Award - Designed to support postdoctoral research experiences for candidates in non-independent mentored research training. Intended to support PhD (or equivalent research degrees) and clinicians engaged in mentored medical research. Up to $70,000 for two years

For questions regarding this RFP, please contact the Lipedema Foundation staff by email at awards@lipedema.org.

All applications must be submitted through the Lipedema Foundation research submission portal. 

Please visit their website to find the link to the submission portal.

Industry News (from the January 14 issue)

Ian Sample, writing in The Guardian (15 Dec 2020), describes the costly upside of the efforts required to effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a extraordinary global collaboration that has led to novel vaccines, therapeutic approaches, and the promise of new discoveries to come. Included is an account of novel steps taken by NIH Director Francis Collins to forge a partnership among the FDA, the CDC, and the largest pharmaceutical companies, aiming to set priorities and milestone accomplishments to accelerate COVID-19 therapeutic interventions and vaccines (“Activ”). Activ whittled an initial list of 640 potential therapies down to a number manageable by clinical trials, and the NIH advanced these to testing. A special federal appropriation was used to underwrite 100+ projects to develop rapid diagnostic testing. Within the month, the fruits of this labor are expected to enable an additional 2 million SARS-CoV2 tests per day.

The 2021 L’Oréal USA For Women in Science program, founded on a belief that women in science have the power to change the world, is now accepting applications. This year’s fellowship program, conducted in partnership with AAAS, will provide five women postdoctoral scientists with $60,000 grants to support their contributions in STEM fields and encourage their service as role models for future generations. Now in its seventeenth year in the U.S., the For Women in Science program has awarded 85 postdoctoral women scientists over $4 million in grants. The 2020 winners included a bioengineer, diabetes researcher and a neuroscientist. Information on eligibility and the application process may be found here.

Deborah M Siegal et al. have published “A toolkit for the collection of thrombosis-related data elements in COVID-19 clinical studies” in the Dec 2020 issue of Blood Advances. While thrombosis is regarded as a major complication of COVID-19, particularly in those with severe illness, differences in study design, patient populations, outcome ascertainment, and other parameters have limited the establishment of generalized prognostic criteria and treatment standards. To address these challenges, a task force of the American Society of Hematology, in collaboration with a similar group from the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, have developed sets of standardized data elements in critical clinical domains. The authors maintain that use of such standardized variables in multiple clinical studies should enhance comparison of results among them.

Putting Engineering Back In Vascular Tissue Engineering To Advance Basic Science and Clinical Applications

Manuscript submission deadline has been extended; for more information, click here.

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Boston, MA

April 27-30, 2021

Virtual & Interactive

May 31-June 5, 2021

Virtual Event from Georgia Tech

July 13-15, 2021

Virtual Event from Boston

October 24-28, 2021

Monterey, California, USA

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