International Symposium on Mechanisms of Vasodilation

Dr. Rhian M Touyz, MBBCh, PhD, FRCP, FRSE, FCAHS, FMedSci, FRSC, is a clinician scientist who has spent her career unraveling the molecular mechanisms of small vessel disease and hypertension, the major causes for premature death worldwide. She is the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. She is also the Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine, the Dr. Phil Gold Chair in Medicine, McGill University, as well as the British Heart Foundation Emeritus Chair.

Susan Leung is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy of the University of Hong Kong. She obtained her BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Bristol, and PhD in cardiovascular pharmacology from the University of Hong Kong. Following receipt of the Croucher Foundation Fellowship, she undertook post-doctoral training at the University of British Columbia in Canada. She was Research Assistant Professor and then Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on examining the vascular tone regulatory signaling under physiological and pathological conditions, and the effects of different pharmacological agents on vascular responses. She has published more than 70 original articles, and has written several reviews on the signaling pathways underlying the regulation of vascular tone.

Kim Dora studies resistance artery function, currently focussed on the coronary circulation. She uses a combination of techniques to study pathways leading to the control of arterial diameter, mainly by the endothelium. Her PhD in Australia was followed by a Postdoctoral Scholarship in the USA working with Dr Brian Duling in Virginia. Here the ideas for the feedback modulation of arterial tone by the endothelium developed and have continued to this day. Kim is co-director of a PhD program funded by the British Heart Foundation and is actively involved in teaching undergraduate students.

Jan Danser studied pharmacy at the University of Amsterdam. In 1985, as a student, he worked at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA, under the guidance of professor Paul Vanhoutte. After obtaining his pharmacist’s degree, he joined the Department of Internal Medicine at the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam as a PhD student. He defended his thesis in 1992 (promotor: professor Maarten Schalekamp), and then joined the Department of Pharmacology at the Erasmus MC. He currently is Professor of Pharmacology and heads the Division of Pharmacology within the Department of Internal Medicine at the Erasmus MC. His research focuses on the pathogenesis and therapy of hypertension, with special emphasis on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, its local function(s) and the synthesis of its components at tissue sites. He has supervised >70 PhD students. In addition, he teaches pharmacology as well as pharmacotherapy. He has published >600 papers in internationally refereed journals, and he has presented >290 invited lectures worldwide. He currently is the treasurer the European Society of Hypertension.

Chris Garland, MA PhD HonFBPhS FRSB, is Professor of Vascular Pharmacology at Oxford University and visiting Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia and the University of Hong Kong. His research investigates how the very small endothelial cells lining the vasculature of the body control the flow and pressure of the blood. His group were the first to report that endothelium derived hyperpolarization (EDH) is generated by two types of endothelial cell potassium channel, SKCa (KCa2.3) and IKCa (KCa3.1). More recently, showing endothelial NO suppresses small artery vasospasm by downregulating T-type VGCCs.

Upon completion of his PhD in Zoology and Physiology in 2003, Brant began a post-doc with Brian Duling at the University of Virginia and focused on heterocellular communication between endothelium and smooth muscle in the microcirculation. In 2007 Brant began his own lab at the University of Virginia as a Resident Faculty Member in the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. In 2017 Brant was given an endowed title of Pinn Scholar, and in 2018 promoted to Professor. He is currently PI of the longest running NIH Training Grant in the United States. Brant has over 170 publications, multiple patents, and has licensed two antibodies and a mouse. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2007, and sits on NIH study sections and editorial boards.

Ulf Simonsen, Professor of Pharmacology, MD, PhD, FBPhS, Aarhus University, Denmark, main scientific interest is basic and clinical pharmacology of the vasculature, with a focus on pulmonary and cardiovascular research. The research involves drug development, and based on preclinical research, he has initiated and participated in phase I and II clinical trials. Co-founder of the biotech company Initiator Pharma A/S. Author of more than 300 publications, books, and patents. Editor-in-Chief of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology."

Dr. Duncan J. Stewart is a pioneering Canadian cardiovascular researcher, recognized for his many important discoveries in blood vessel biology, as well as his dedication in translating these discoveries into benefits for patients and society by performing innovative gene and cell therapy clinical trials for heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and inflammatory lung diseases. After launching his career in academic cardiology at McGill University in Montreal, he moved to Toronto as Head of Cardiology at St. Michael’s Hospital (now Unity Health Toronto), and later became Director of the Division of Cardiology at the University of Toronto (U of T), and Executive Director of the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine. He was recruited to lead the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) in 2007. Dr. Stewart has published more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has received a number of distinctions and prizes. As well as serving as CEO & Scientific Director of the OHRI and Executive Vice-President, Research at The Ottawa Hospital until 2024, Dr. Stewart is a Senior Scientist in OHRI's Regenerative Medicine Program and a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and continues to lead a vibrant and productive research team. As Principal Investigator of the largest infrastructure grant in the history of the University of Ottawa, he will be playing a leadership role in the development of the new biotherapeutics manufacturing facility at The Ottawa Hospital’s new campus.

Stefan Chłopicki is a Professor of Pharmacology at Chair of Pharmacology at Jagiellonian University  Medical College,  and an initiator and Director of Jagiellonian Centre for Experimental Therapeutics (JCET), the interdisciplinary academic research centre at Jagiellonian University established in 2011, focused on interdisciplinary research in Endothelial and Vascular Biomedicine. He graduated with honours in Medicine (1990), obtained his PhD in Medicine (1993 summa cum laude) and research training in the Chair of Pharmacology headed by Prof. Richard Gryglewski.  He received fellowship in Strathclyde University, UK (Prof. J. Parratt, 1993), Post Ph.D. fellowship in the Arhus University, Denmark (Prof. M. Mulvany 1994-1995),  and NIH fellowship in the BWH, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (Prof. E. J. Neer, 1997) at finally become a full professor at Jagiellonian University in Kraków (2006). Prof. Stefan Chlopicki scientific activity is documented by over 300 original publications in international refereed journals,  multiple patents, supervision >25 PhD students and number research grants received as principal investigator (PI) that allowed to set up JCET infrastructure to recruit JCETeam and to foster interdisciplinary research activity in JCET in Krakow.  Major and long‐standing research interests of Prof Chlopicki and his team have been related to pharmacotherapeutic mechanisms of endothelial and vascular dysfunction in various diseases.

Dr. Augusto Montezano is a cardiovascular scientist with over 17 years of experience his research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of vascular dysfunction in hypertension and related diseases, using multidisciplinary approaches from cellular studies to whole-animal physiology. He has made key contributions to NADPH oxidase and redox biology, including defining the role of Nox5 in vascular dysfunction, and has uncovered novel mechanisms involving ACE2, TRPM7, and Notch3 in vascular disease and adipose-vascular interactions. Dr. Montezano has an extensive record of mentorship, having supervised or co-supervised over 80 trainees at different career stages. He has served in leadership roles in international scientific societies, including as Chair of the Trainee Advocacy Committee of the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension and Chair of the Mentoring and Training Committee of the International Society of Hypertension. He is Digital Strategies Editor for Hypertension and regularly reviews for major cardiovascular journals and international funding agencies.