The NAVBO Meritorious Awards Committee is currently seeking nominations for our two most prestigious awards - the

Earl P. Benditt Award which recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding discovery or developed a concept that has been seminal to our understanding of vascular biology or pathology; and the Judah Folkman Award in Vascular Biology, for an individual who is mid- career (between 3 and 15 years of their first faculty appointment) and has made a significant impact on the field of vascular biology through his/her original research accomplishments.

 

Please honor your colleagues by nominating them for one of these awards.  Information regarding criteria and materials  needed can be found on our web site at https://www.navbo.org/awards/nominations-for-meritorious-awards

Submit Your Abstract

Early bird discount ends on August 15 - register today!

 

Very excited to be joined by:

The Microcirculatory Society

and the

American Society for Investigative Pathology

Plans are still underway for the program within this new format, but all speakers have agreed to participate, and the existing sessions will all take place!  Tentative meeting dates are October 26-29, 2020. Look for some exciting opportunities - Poster Discussions, Evening Discussions (perfect for our friends in Asia and Australia), Networking Discussions and more. 

We are accepting abstracts!   The meeting features our Biology of Signaling in the Cardiovascular System and Vascular  Inflammation Workshops and a neurovascular cross-over theme.  Go to https://www.navbo.org/vb2020 for the program. 

 

Take advantage of this opportunity to showcase your work for would be employers.  Join Cody on our web site!   

We have heard from a number of people that both graduation ceremonies and thesis presentations have been cancelled and/or reformatted for remote participation.  Coupled with the temporary halt in in-person conferences, this situation may be making it more challenging for trainees to network, promote their science, and search for their next position.  To address this, NAVBO will offer online opportunities for our trainee members.

The new Emerging Scientists Series will offer trainees the opportunity to showcase their thesis research in short research highlight talks.  This new resource will serve as a place for trainees to share their work with employers that are hiring and searching for a new recruit with vascular biology research experience.   Postdocs  - looking for your first faculty position?  You can use this service as well. 

 

If you are a trainee that has just defended your thesis, or a postdoc seeking your first faculty position and are interested in this opportunity, please contact [email protected] 

 

Calling all Tweeters, Instagrammers, those that are LinkedIn and FaceBooking!  Also, some web site savvy people!

Did you miss the first two days of camp? No worries!

Join us for sessions on Bioengineering/Matrix Biology and Inflammation and gain access to the recordings on Development and Signaling. Students and other trainees should plan to join us!

Three-hour sessions will be held on Monday and Wednesday afternoons (1:00pm eastern time) and will include three lectures each, plus presentations by abstract authors.    

 

Registration information can be found here:
https://www.navbo.org/events/summer-camp 

 

Talks will be presented by:

*Masanoria Aikawa, Brigham and Women's Hospital

*Michelle Bendeck, University of Toronto

*Ondine Cleaver, UT Southwestern Medical Center

*Anne Eichmann, Yale University

Gabriele Fredman, Albany Medical College

Zorina Galis, NHLBI/NIH  

*Courtney Griffin, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation 

Karen Hirschi, Yale School of Medicine
Lucy Liaw, Maine Medical College
*Bill Muller, Northwestern University 

*Stefania Nicoli, Yale University

*Wayne Orr, LSU Health Science Center in Shreveport 

Amber Stratman, Washington University in St. Louis

Mary Wallingford, Tufts Medical Center
Hiromi Yanagisawa, University of Tsukuba, Japan 

 

*indicates organizers   

 

Registration is free!!  Hope you can join us!

Consider making a donation to NAVBO when you register  

 

Important: If you are already registered for Summer Camp, check your email for important information.  We are moving the sessions to a different webinar platform.  We will be using GoToWebinar (this is what we use for our monthly webinars and Journal Clubs) . If you register anew, you will receive the correct links in your confirmation email.  Follow the link above.

Transitioning to the New Normal: Leaders' Lessons on Reopening Labs and Doing Science in a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic forced research in most academic labs throughout the world to grind to a halt over the past three months. Now, as we emerge from quarantines and labs gradually reopen, PIs and trainees are learning to navigate largely uncharted paths of doing science in a pandemic. How do you hire a postdoc who cannot travel to your lab? As a trainee, how do you check out a lab that you can't visit? Without in-person conferences, what opportunities are there to network? How are labs re-opening safely? How do you train new students and staff when physical distancing is required? Can unspent grant funds be carried over?

 

Seven NAVBO Leaders - Michelle Bendeck (University of Toronto), Ondine Cleaver (UT Southwestern), Zorina Galis (NHLBI), William Huckle (Virginia Tech), Bill Muller (Northwestern University), Kristy Red-Horse (Stanford University) and Linda Shapiro (University of Connecticut) - recently participated in an online discussion to share their experiences and advice on these topics and more. From virtual lab tours to training via Facetime to resources for online networking (including the NAVBO Emerging Scientist Series and NAVBO Happy Hours*), their Leaders' Lessons on transitioning to the new normal can be watched here.

 

* Happy Hours are Friday's at 5:00pm ET  (no happy hour on June 26 or July 3) 

The Lab of Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch
This month we are highlighting the lab of Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch, who is a Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Find out more about Dr. Rabinovitch's lab at https://www.navbo.org/membership/members-labs/931-lab062020.

Three-Dimensional Imaging of the Vertebral Lymphatic Vasculature and Drainage Using iDISCO+ and Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy  

Journal of Visualized Experiments

The lymphatic system associated with the central nervous system (CNS) includes the lymphatic vasculature that spins around the brain, the spinal cord, and its associated LNs. The CNS-associated lymphatic system is involved in the drainage of CSF macromolecules and meningeal immune cells toward CNS-draining LNs, thereby regulating waste clearance and immune surveillance within CNS tissues. Read more

Platelet factor 4 is a biomarker for lymphatic-promoted disorders 

Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight

Genetic or acquired defects of the lymphatic vasculature often result in disfiguring, disabling and, occasionally, life-threatening clinical consequences. Advanced forms of lymphedema are readily diagnosed clinically, but more subtle presentations often require invasive imaging or other technologies for a conclusive diagnosis. Read more

Altered Lipid Domains Facilitate Enhanced Pulmonary Vasoconstriction after Chronic Hypoxia 

American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology

Chronic hypoxia (CH) augments depolarization-induced pulmonary vasoconstriction through superoxide-dependent, Rho kinase-mediated Ca2+ sensitization. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase and EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) signaling contributes to this response. Read more

Intermittent Hypoxia Augments Pulmonary Vasoconstrictor Reactivity through PKCβ/Mitochondrial Oxidant Signaling  

American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology

Pulmonary vasoconstriction resulting from intermittent hypoxia (IH) contributes to pulmonary hypertension (pHTN) in patients with sleep apnea (SA), although the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. Read more

Hepatic Vein Blood Increases Lung Microvascular Angiogenesis and Endothelial Cell Survival-Toward an Understanding of Univentricular Circulation 

Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

To improve our understanding of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations in univentricular congenital heart disease, our objective was to identify the effects of hepatic vein and superior vena cava constituents on lung microvascular endothelial cells independent of blood flow. Read more

CSR seeks to advance racial equity in grant application review

In her June 12 "Review Matters" column, Noni Byrnes, Director of the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH, addresses racial disparities in NIH R01 award rates between White and Black applicants. While acknowledging that many secondary variables confound isolating the effect of race in the peer review process, Dr. Byrnes forcefully argues that "...implicit bias exists in all of us as individuals, and the CSR peer review process, with 18,000 unique individuals serving as reviewers, is not immune from these biases." She describes initiatives the CSR intended to mitigate bias and thus better fulfill the Center's mission of providing a review process that is fair, independent, and free from inappropriate influences.  

 

Evidence grows for prominent role for the vasculature dysfunction in COVID-19

Inspired in part by a recent review from NAVBO member Peter Carmeliet and his Belgian and Chinese colleagues implicating damage to the endothelium as an essential contributor to the initiation and propagation of severe COVID-19 disease, attention has become more sharply focused on the vasculature as a trigger for the coronavirus's life-threatening 'second phase.' Other research published in the NEJM notes a marked increase in the prevalence of alveolar capillary microthrombi and intussusceptive angiogenesis detected at autopsy in patients with COVID-19 compared to those with influenza. Vessels leakage and microthrombi formation in turn spark inflammation throughout the body and fuel the acute respiratory distress syndrome associated with most COVID-19 patient deaths.  

 

Seeking the new normal (for now) in conducting basic research

Chemical & Engineering News has interviewed researchers and safety experts about their efforts to ensure workers' health and safety as the broad research community moves, with due deliberation, to resume activities after closures and quarantines. While universities and public and private research institutes are keen to get back to work at full speed, what lab work will look like going forward remains to be seen. Pharmaceutical businesses were designated as essential under Department of Homeland Security guidelines and could remain operating, albeit under tightened safety protocols. However, most academic and government labs closed, except for work related to SARS-CoV2 and its associated COVID-19 illness.

What do we know about COVID-19 implications for cardiovascular disease?

Topic Editors: Hendrik Tevaearai Stahel , Masanori Aikawa, Shuyang Zhang , and Andrew F. James  

 

The coronavirus epidemic causes major cardiovascular complications. Underlying mechanisms, however, remain incompletely understood. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine invite you to submit your article on this topic. We consider all types of manuscripts: fundamental basic science reports, translational or clinical studies, review articles and methodology papers.

 

Submit your manuscript by August 28, 2020

 

For more information, click here 

 

For questions, please contact Masanori Aikawa   [email protected] or the editorial office [email protected]