Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Exploring Cardiovascular Disease

Talk title: "Is vascular damage at the heart of cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction?"

Dr. Jason Fish completed his PhD at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Philip Marsden. Here he uncovered a role for epigenetics in gene regulation in blood vessels. This was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and the University of California San Francisco under the supervision of Dr. Deepak Srivastava. Here, Dr. Fish uncovered a role for microRNAs in regulating the development of the cardiovascular system.

Since moving back to Toronto in 2010, Dr. Fish and his team explore the mechanisms of gene regulation in the endothelium in health and disease. His recent work has uncovered how somatic mutations in the endothelium lead to sporadic brain arteriovenous malformations, a leading cause of stroke in young people. His laboratory is uncovering the mechanisms involved and is using this information to design new therapies. Dr. Fish’s laboratory is also determining how chemotherapy affects the vascular system and how extracellular vesicles regulate cardiovascular disease. 

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Talk title: “Innovation and challenges in atherosclerosis and vascular biology research”

Dr. Cybulsky received a M.D. degree in 1982 from the University of Toronto and completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at this institution in 1986. His research training included quantification of acute inflammation and investigation of relevant mediators with Dr. Henry Movat at the University of Toronto and a research fellowship in vascular biology with Dr. Michael Gimbrone, Jr., at Harvard Medical School (1987-1991). 

From 1991, he was a member of the faculty in the Departments of Pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he ran a NIH-funded basic research laboratory. 

In 1996, Dr. Cybulsky was recruited to the University of Toronto, where he currently is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. His laboratory is at the Toronto General Research Institute, where he is a Senior Scientist. He is also a Staff Pathologist and consultant in cardiovascular pathology at the University Health Network. 

Dr. Cybulsky’s research focuses on regional differences in the arterial intima that predispose the artery wall to atherogenesis and on cellular events that occur in early atherosclerotic lesions such as monocyte recruitment and proliferation of intimal myeloid cells.  He also studies the functions of alpha-4 integrins in leukocyte adhesion to VCAM-1 and recruitment to sites of inflammation. This research may lead to new insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the onset of atherosclerosis and inflammation.   

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Talk title: "Mass spectrometry in mouse and human hearts in health and disease"

Dr. Gramolini is a Full Professor in the Department of Physiology and Translational Biology and Engineering Program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research at the University of Toronto. He is a leading cardiovascular proteomic expert and heads the Cardiovascular Proteomics Laboratory at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the discovery of novel molecular therapeutics and diagnostics for muscle diseases utilizing human tissue, blood, and stem cells, alongside animal models of disease states and progression. His research applies advanced cellular imaging, proteomics, and cell biological approaches. He has published over 135 papers, given over 65 invited seminars and been awarded 28 peer-reviewed operating grants. Research from his lab has been published in Nature, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, Developmental Cell, Circulation, J Clinical Investigation, and PNAS. He has been an external reviewer of international proteomic initiatives originating in Singapore, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, and has been a scientific reviewer for CIHR, Alberta Heritage, and Heart & Stroke Canada. At University of Toronto, he has been the Cardiovascular Platform Leader for the Cardiovascular Research Group, held a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Proteomics and Molecular Therapeutics, received the Boehringer Ingelheim New Investigator award, the Heart and Stroke Foundation New Investigator Award, and the John Polanyi Prize.

Talk title: "N-cadherin Nanotherapy for Atherosclerosis"

Michelle Bendeck is a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, and a Scientist in the Translational Biology and Engineering Program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. The TBEP program was initiated to promote multi-disciplinary work between medicine and engineering, and is the first of its kind. Her current research is focused on understanding the interactions between vascular cells and the extracellular matrix during the development of atherosclerosis and its complications. The Bendeck lab uses experimental animal models and cell culture assays to study cell-matrix remodeling. One major project is focused on mechanosensing and cell differentiation during vascular fibrosis and calcification, and in a translational research project they are developing peptide conjugated nanoparticles to treat vascular disease. 

Dr. Bendeck completed her PhD at the University of Toronto, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle. She has held leadership positions as the Vice-Chair of Research in LMP, and the president of the North American Vascular Biology Organization and the Canadian Society of Atherosclerosis. She has held research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institutes of Health (USA), the New Frontiers in Research Foundation, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.  

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Talk title: "LDL Transcytosis: Atherosclerosis by a thousand cuts"

Dr. Lee received his M.D. from the University of Toronto and was awarded the Cody Gold Medal. He did residencies in Internal Medicine, Respirology, and Critical Care Medicine in Toronto.  He completed a PhD in the Program in Cell Biology and postdoctoral training in Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.  

Lee’s lab studies endothelial and vascular biology. He has particular expertise in the study of endothelial transcytosis of LDL as it pertains to atherosclerosis – this is the process by which LDL builds up in the artery wall - and his lab was first to identify SR-BI as a key receptor. Lee also studies the vascular biology of innate immunity and has contributed to the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic approaches for lung endothelial permeability during pathogen-induced inflammation (e.g. ARDS). His work has led to 3 patents and a phase IIa clinical trial. Lee holds a Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Endothelial Permeability. 

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Talk title: "Endothelial cell organotypic specification in engineered pancreatic islet grafts for the treatment of diabetes"

Dr. Sara Nunes Vasconcelos, PhD is a Senior Scientist at the University Health Network in the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and holds the John Kitson McIvor Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research​. 

Her translational research program aims to develop regenerative medicine strategies to treat cardiovascular diseases and diabetes and to use bioengineering approaches to study these diseases. Her lab has developed new vascularization techniques to support functional tissues for organ regeneration and is pioneering the work to create mature, long-lasting, functional blood vessels. Her work on human cardiac tissues-on-a-chip has opened a new avenue of research in stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte maturation and drug testing.

Her laboratory’s ground-breaking research contributions have been recognized by several awards, including the Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the Microcirculatory Society and the Young Innovators in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Award, USA. She holds funding from CIHR, NSERC, JDRF, SCN and the NFRF and serves as a reviewer for CIHR, NIH, and NASA.

See Dr. Nunes Vasconcelos' faculty profile

Talk title: "Maturation of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo"

Dr. Michael Laflamme is the Robert McEwen Chair in Cardiac Regenerative Medicine, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, Senior Scientist in the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at the University Health Network (UHN), and Professor of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology at the University of Toronto.

He leads a research program that is focused on developing novel cardiac cell therapies based on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), and his laboratory has made a number of important contributions in this area including efficient protocols to guide hPSCs into cardiomyocytes, proof-of-concept transplantation studies with hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes in preclinical models, and the first direct demonstration that hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes can become electrically integrated and activate synchronously with host myocardium in injured hearts.

Dr. Laflamme has been the recipient of honors including the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology Young Investigator Award, the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Outstanding New Investigator Award, and the UHN Inventor of the Year. Dr. Laflamme is a founding investigator of BlueRock Therapeutics, and he also practiced cardiovascular and autopsy pathology for over two decades.

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Talk title: "Immune Cells and Vasculature in Engineered Heart Tissues"

Dr. Milica Radisic is a Professor at the University of Toronto, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering and a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute. She is also Director of the NSERC CREATE Training Program in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering & Entrepreneurship and a co-lead for the Center for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada-Academy of Science, Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering, Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine Society as well as Biomedical Engineering Society. She was a recipient of the MIT Technology Review Top 35 Under 35, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, NSERC E.W.R Steacie Fellowship, YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, Killam Fellowship, Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal, and Humboldt Research Award to name a few.

Her research focuses on organ-on-a-chip engineering and development of new biomaterials that promote healing and attenuate scarring. She developed new methods to mature iPSC derived cardiac tissues using electrical stimulation.

She is an Executive Editor for ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, Senior Consulting Editor for the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, a reviewing editor for eLife and a member of the editorial board of another 8 journals. She served on the Board of Directors for Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, Canadian Biomaterials Society and McMaster University Alumni Association. She organized Keystone, EMBO and ECI conferences and numerous sessions at TERMIS and BMES meetings. She served as a Scientific Officer for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and member of review panels for CIHR, NIH and Israel Ministry of Education. She is the Chair of Investment Committee for Serbia Innovation Fund. She is a co-founder of two companies TARA Biosystems (acquired by Valo Health), that uses human engineered heart tissues in drug development and safety testing, and Quthero that advances regenerative hydrogels. Her work has been presented in over 260 publications, garnering over 24,000 citations with an h-index of 77. Her publications  appeared in Cell, Nature Materials, Nature Methods, Nature Protocols, Nature Communications, PNAS etc.

Dr. Robert Bentley is an Assistant Professor within the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at the University of Toronto. Dr. Bentley’s research focuses how individuals differ in their ability to match oxygen delivery to the muscle’s oxygen demand during physical activity across the health spectrum. Dr. Bentley incorporates non-invasive and invasive measures of both cardiac and vascular structure and function to delineate pathways of oxygen delivery, and explore the resulting impact on exertional tolerance and performance. Dr. Bentley completed his graduate training at Queen’s University focusing on vascular control during exercise prior to completing two post-doctoral fellowships focusing on exercise and clinical cardiac physiology at the University of Toronto and Sinai Health. His independent and collaborative research is supported by multiple tri-agency grants as well as the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Ontario Research Fund.

Kathryn completed her PhD at McMaster University in the Molecular Immunology, Virology and Inflammation program. Kathryn went to medical school at the University of Toronto and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Sick Kids, publishing in several fields during this time, including infection and immunity in HIV, ethics and sustainability in global surgery, and ischemia-reperfusion. She has been awarded competitive Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowships and National scholarships throughout her research training. As part of her Vascular Surgery residency, Kathryn completed a 3-month clinical and research fellowship at Stanford University. Kathryn is the first female Surgeon-Scientist in Vascular Surgery in Toronto, establishing her own laboratory investigating the role of endothelial communication in vascular disease in 2018. Her clinical initiative is carotid revascularization and stroke prevention, which dovetails with her bench research program. She collaborates extensively with Dr. Jason Fish. Kathryn’s CIHR-funded research program is looking at the role of endothelial activation/inflammation in carotid atherosclerosis and uses cell culture and animal models, as well as human tissue from the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre Biobank. Additional projects include endothelial regulation of immune cell function, endothelial senescence, and endothelial identity. In collaboration with the PMCC Artificial Intelligence group, she is trying to identify the vulnerable carotid plaque through machine learning. Kathryn’s ultimate goal is to find regulators of atherosclerosis for development of innovative strategies to improve prevention and treatment in advance of devastating clinical events such as stroke.

Dr. Amy Kirkham is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Cardiovascular Health in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at the University of Toronto and a Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada National New Investigator. She also currently holds Women’s Health Research Early Career Researcher awards from the CIHR National Women’s Health Research Initiative and the CIHR Institute of Gender & Health.

Her research uses advanced imaging and lifestyle interventions to understand, treat, and improve the health of women with or at risk for cancer, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases.

Dr. Seema Mital is a Staff Cardiologist & the Head of Cardiovascular Research at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute. She is also the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada & Robert M Freedom Chair of Cardiovascular Science, and the Scientific Co-Lead of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. She leads the Cardiac Precision Medicine program at SickKids that leverages genomics, stem cells, AI and digital technology to model disease, test therapies, and implement precision medicine including personalized decision support tools. Dr. Mital established the SickKids Heart Centre Biobank, a multi-centre biorepository for childhood onset heart disease with over 10,000 participants. She leads the ERAPerMed/CIHR funded PROCEED network for Personalized Genomics in congenital heart disease, the multi-centre international Precision Medicine in Cardiomyopathy (PRIMaCY) network, the CIHR-funded multi-centre INSERT-HCM study, co-leads the CIHR-funded Precision Medicine for Heart Failure in the Young (PRIORITY) project of the Canadian Heart Function Alliance, and is a PI on several NIH grants. She is Academic Project Lead for the Genome Canada funded SickKids Precision Child Health Sequencing project that will sequence 10,000 childhood genomes.

Dr. Paul Oh is Medical Director and GoodLife Fitness Chair in the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation Program at the University Health Network – Toronto Rehab and Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  He is also a Senior Scientist in The KITE Research Institute, and the Medical Director of the Toronto Rehab Clinical Research Unit. He obtained his M.D. from the University of Toronto in 1988 and completed specialty training in Internal Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology, and Clinical Epidemiology. He has been an author of over 325 peer reviewed publications, and is principal investigator on a number of grants examining exercise, uses of technology, behavioural and educational interventions for the primary and secondary prevention and management of cardiovascular conditions, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases in multicultural populations.

Dr. Steven White is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto and works as a cardiovascular and autopsy pathologist at Toronto General Hospital and as a forensic pathologist with the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology and a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Tulane University before completing his MD and PhD (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) degrees at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. His research focused on using embryonic stem cells to study development of specialized cardiac pacemaking and conducting cells. 

After medical school, Dr. White completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), followed by a fellowship in Forensic Pathology at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office in Chicago, where he worked as an Assistant Medical Examiner and Cardiovascular Pathology Consultant. He served as an attending pathologist on the autopsy, cardiovascular, and perinatal pathology services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and as a research pathologist at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. Dr. White helped establish a Provincial forensic pathology service for the BC Coroners Service prior to moving to Toronto in 2023.

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Dr. JoAnne Arcand is a nationally and internationally recognized nutrition scientist and implementation researcher whose work focuses on clinical and population-level strategies to improve diet quality and cardiovascular health. She is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ontario Tech University, is Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Preventative Nutrition & Technology,  and is appointed as Scientist at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition Policy for Chronic Disease Prevention. She holds Research Excellence Chair in Food, Nutrition & Health at Ontario Tech University and has led multiple CIHR- and Heart & Stroke–funded grants. Her research has directly informed Canadian and global nutrition policies, including sodium reduction strategies, trans fat elimination and food environment and tech-based educational interventions. Dr. Arcand is known for translating evidence into practice through strong partnerships with government, non-governmental organizations, and professional organizations.

Heta Lad PhD, is an expert in engineered skeletal and cardiac muscle systems, with specialization in functional assays, tissue modeling, and media design. She holds a Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto and a Research Scientist position at boutIQ solutions Inc, where she works on next-generation media for cellular agriculture and regenerative medicine.