MU Celebrates 25th Cardiovascular Day

Cardiovascular Day
Brian Ruyle, left, and Scott Zawieja, right, join Kerry McDonald, the vice chair for research for the MU School of Medicine's Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, at Cardiovascular Day on Feb. 27 at Reynolds Alumni Center.

The University of Missouri held its 25th annual Cardiovascular Day on Feb. 27, 2018, at Reynolds Alumni Center. The event celebrates cardiovascular research at MU.

Cardiovascular Day supports collaborative research among MU scientists from the Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology; Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center; Department of Biomedical Sciences; School of Medicine; College of Veterinary Medicine; College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; and College of Engineering.

The day’s events included lectures and poster sessions with 40 entries. The poster award winners were as follows:

Graduate Student

First place: Brian Ruyle, “PVN Projections to the NTS Are Essential for Full Expression of Responses to Peripheral Chemoreflex Stimulation.”

Second place: Deborah Peana, “TRPV4 Increases Cardiomyocyte Calcium Transients and Contributes to Cardiac Damage Following Ischemia-Reperfusion in Hearts of Aged Mice.”

Third place: Ghazaleh Behnammanesh, “Canagliflozin Inhibits Human Endothelial Cell Function.”

Postdoctoral

First place: Scott Zawieja, “Identification of Potential Lymphatic Pacemaker Cells Using Selective Inducible Cre Driven Expression of Fluorescent Reporters and Calcium Sensors.”

Second place: Jorge A. Castorena-Gonzalez, “Endothelium-Dependent Modulation of the Contractile Function of Collector Lymphatics.”

Third place: Anthony M. Belenchia, “The Novel Cardio-Oncology Drug NP-6A4 Regulates the Growth of Multiple Breast Cancer Cell Lines Through Distinct Cell-Specific Mechanisms.”