The Joint Institute continued its ongoing Bridging Conference virtual seminar series with a recent session on cardiovascular medicine.

Hosted by Michigan Medicine Frankel Cardiovascular Center Director David Pinsky, MD, and Peking University Third Hospital Professor and Chair of Cardiology Yida Tang, MD, PhD, the April 29 session highlighted the work of four researchers from each institution in the hopes of sparking ideas for future projects.

“This has been a very meaningful partnership for me and I’m thrilled to see how it’s grown. We’ve done great science and made great friends,” said Pinsky. “The hope is that, by time we can meet next in person, we will have some new (cardiovascular medicine) collaborations well underway.”

From U-M, panelists included Associate Professor of Internal Medicine Scott Hummel, who studies nutrition and heart health in older populations; Assistant Professor Internal Medicine Salim Hyak, whose lab is exploring soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, or suPAR, injury pathway linking cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease; Professor of Internal Medicine Daniel Lawrence, whose research focuses on the vascular disease implications of disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s; and Professor of Internal Medicine Ahmed Abdel-Latif, who studies the mechanisms of heart regeneration after ischemic injury.

From PKUHSC, Yida Tang provided a high-level overview of PKUHSC’s cardiovascular clinical and research programs; Jianping Li, Chair and Professor of Cardiology at PKU First Hospital, discussed his research on stroke prevention by concomitant control of blood pressure as well as the impacts of air pollution on cardiovascular health; Xunde Xian, Scientist at the PKU Institute of Cardiovascular Medicine, discussed a unique hamster model he created to study role of lipoprotein in periphery tissues and the central nervous system; finally, Yuxuan Guo, Assistant Professor also from the PKU Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, discussed a new genome editing tool his lab has developed to advance cardiovascular research.