Universitäts-Herzzentrum Freiburg • Bad Krozingen

Festive Opening of the Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine in Freiburg

Chair: Ursula Ravens (Freiburg)

Welcome addresses by:

Kit Parker (Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Boston): Cardiovascular Engineering: Macro to Nano

Natalia Trayanova (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore): Computational Cardiology: Nano to Macro

Peter Kohl (Director of Research of the University Heart Centre Freiburg-Bad Krozingen, Director of the Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine)

Reception

Peter Kohl (Freiburg): Greeting

Ursula Ravens (Freiburg): A tribute to Professor Max Lab 

Session 1: Stretch & Structure

Chair: Gentaro Iribe (Okayama)

Takashi Mikawa (San Francisco): Mechanical effects on developmental patterning of atrial conduction

Andrew McCulloch (San Diego): Stretch-induced changes in sarcolemmal organisation

Coffee and Posters

Eva Rog-Zielinska (London): Structural changes in cell membrane compartments during contraction and relaxation

Stephan Rohr (Bern): Aggravation of cardiac myofibroblast arrhythmogeneicity by mechanical stress

Lunch and Posters

Session 2: Mechano-Sensing Mechanisms in Striated Muscle 

Chair: Fred Sachs (Buffalo)

Malcolm Irving (KCL): Sarcomeric mechanosensing by myosin filaments: Frank-Starling reloaded?

Christopher Ward (Baltimore): Microtubules modulate mechanotransduction in heart muscle

Gudrun Antoons (Maastricht): Stretch-induced modulation of Ca²⁺ handling in atrial and ventricular myocytes

Tea and Posters

Pieter de Tombe (Chicago): Measuring organelle-entrapped calcium in ventricular sarcoplasmic reticulum: new methods and insights

Delphine Dean (Clemson): AFM-based mechanical characterisation of cardiac muscle cells 

Poster Session

With Refreshments, and Nibbles, and more…

Session 3: Quantifying & Classifying Mechanical Stimuli 

Chair: Veronique Meijborg (Amsterdam)

Boris Martinac (Sydney): Single molecule FRET to study pore size and opening mechanism of mechano-sensitive ion channels

Brenton Hoffman (Durham): Construction, imaging, and analysis of FRET-based tension sensors in living cells

Tomaso Zambelli (ETH Zurich): Force-controlled patch clamp of beating cardiac cells

Coffee and Posters

Dirk Trauner (Munich): Controlling Biological Pathways with Synthetic Photoswitches​

Stefan Luther (Göttingen): Simultaneous Mapping of Electrical and Mechanical Activity in the Non-Uncoupled Langendorff Heart​​ 

Lunch and Posters

Session 4: Stretch & Ion Handling 

Chair: Olga Solovyova (Ekaterinburg)

Mario Delmar (New York): Nanoscale visualization of functional adhesion/excitability nodes at the intercalated disc

Stephane Sebille (Poitiers): Cardiac TRPV2 channels: role in mediating cardiac pathology

Thomas Suchyna (Buffalo): GsMTx-4: Mechanism of MSC inhibition and cardioprotective potential

Tea and Posters

Remi Peyronnet (Freiburg): Stretch-activated channels in human heart valves

Yoram Etzion (Ben-Gurion University): Leadless Pacing by Magnetic Actuation of Injected Iron-Microparticles

Free Evening or Guided walking tour of historic Freiburg (optional)

Session 5: MEC & Arrhythmias: Animal Models 

Chair: Larissa Fabritz (University of Birmingham) 

Alex Quinn (Halifax): Mechanically-Induced Ventricular Ectopy and Fibrillation in the Isolated Heart

Ruben Coronel (Amsterdam): Synchronization of repolarization by mechano-electrical coupling in the heart

David Filgueiras-Rama (Madrid): Increased intraventricular pressure favouring sustained re-entry in the swine heart 

Coffee and Posters

José A. Barrabés (Barcelona): Stretch-activated channel block: effects on cardiac electrophysiology ex- and in-situ

Fanny Vaillant (Bordeaux): The isolated working porcine heart model for the study of mechanical, electrophysiological and metabolic functions.​

Lunch and Posters

Session 6: MEC & Arrhythmias in Human 

Chair: Michael R. Franz (Washington)

Dennis Lau (Adelaide): Acute atrial stretch and pulmonary vein arrhythmogenesis

Cathrin Theis (Mainz): Percutaneous Mitral Valve Repair and Ventricular Arrhythmias

Teri Whitman (Minneapolis): Influence of intracardiac pressure on spontaneous ventricular arrhythmias: lessons from the REDUCEhf trial

Tea and Posters

Closing Session

Chair: Peter Kohl (Freiburg)

Mark Marshall (Medtronic): What we’ve learned

Natalia Trayanova (Baltimore): Where we go from here

Discussion, Participant feedback

Meeting Dinner and Dance at Peterhofkeller

Reception 

Dinner

Entertainment