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| Top: The band BPM entertained guests after dinner. (From left) UCLA Drs. Nicholas Wisniewski and James N. Weiss; vocalists Teresa Sanchez, Sasha Weiss, Tricia Dooly; guest guitarist Dr. Donald Heistad, from the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa; and Dr. Hrayr S. Karagueuzian, UCLA professor of cardiology. Bottom: UCLA graduate student Jennifer Chyu describes her research project to UCLA Cardiovascular Symposium 2016 attendees. Photos: Julianne Backman |
Continuing its mission of education and community outreach, UCLA’s cardiovascular leadership held three events in fall 2016. Dr. Kelsey C. Martin, dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, along with the cardiovascular leadership team, welcomed 125 community members and faculty to Rhythm of the Heart, a reception and dinner on September 1, 2016, held at the UCLA Meyer & Renee Luskin Conference Center. UCLA rolled out its theme concept of six interdisciplinary research priorities of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
The mission of the Cardiovascular Theme at UCLA is to pioneer innovation and discovery to prevent, detect and cure cardiovascular disease — the No. 1 killer in the United States. Following dinner, BPM, a rock-blues-jazz band whose members are UCLA cardiologists, led by Dr. James N. Weiss (FEL ’81), chief of the Division of Cardiology and Chizuko and Nobuyuki Kawata Chair in Cardiology, provided heart-pounding music.
The following day, nearly 400 scientists, physicians and students from across the country attended the inaugural UCLA Cardiovascular Symposium at the Luskin Center. The intensive, one-day symposium, organized by UCLA Drs. Reza Ardehali and Luisa Iruela-Arispe, featured preeminent U.S. cardiologist-scientists and introduced the Cardiovascular Theme to attendees. The event included an overview of UCLA cardiovascular medicine and research and presentations covering leading-edge scientific discoveries by nine global leaders in the field. Ninety-five graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, clinical residents, clinical fellows, project scientists and early-career faculty participated in a poster session during the symposium to present their research.
On September 14, UCLA invited the public to learn about the groundbreaking discoveries in cardiovascular research at the introductory UCLA Innovations in Cardiovascular Research Community Update. Held in the newly renovated South Tower research space of the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences (CHS), Dr. Stephen Smale, vice dean of medical research in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, as well as the Cardiovascular Theme leadership team, led by Dr. Yibin Wang, professor of anesthesiology, physiology and medicine, and Dr. James N. Weiss, welcomed 60 guests. The new Cardiovascular Theme space in the South Tower in CHS will feature eight state-of-the-art research laboratories. UCLA faculty Drs. Ira Hofer; Richard Shemin, Robert and Kelly Day Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery; Karol Watson (RES ’92, FEL ’97, PHD ’98) and Thomas Vondriska covered various topics, including “Revolutionizing Medicine through Big Data” and “Personalized Medicine and Discovery Science at the Frontier of Cardiovascular Health.”
For more information about the Cardiovascular Theme, contact Gina Weitzel at: (310) 267-2112
For more information about the community update series, contact Michelle Jacobson at: (310) 267-1213
