Invited Speakers
David Attwell
University College London, UK
David Attwell is Jodrell Professor of Physiology at the Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology, University College London, United Kingdom. He did a BSc in Physics and a PhD on neuronal and cardiac electrophysiology in Oxford, before spending 2 years in Berkeley studying the retina. He then moved to University College London. He has studied glial cells, glutamate transporters, stroke, the myelin formation by oligodendrocytes, how neuronal computation is powered and the control of cerebral, cardiac and renal blood flow. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001, and was a Highly Cited Scientist (in the top 0.1% of scientists) from 2019-2022. He is currently President of the UK Physiological Society.
Sarah Barman
Kingston University, UK
Sarah Barman is Professor in Computer Vision in the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Kingston University where she leads research into medical image analysis. She is a member of the UK Biobank Eye and Vision consortium, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and is a registered Chartered Physicist. Her research project funding has included support from UK Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust and she is the author of over 100 international scientific publications and book chapters. Professor Barman’s research interests include the development of deep learning approaches to analyse ophthalmic and oral lesion images.
Edina Cenko
University of Bologna, Italy
Dr. Edina Cenko is a clinical cardiology researcher at the University of Bologna’s Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences. She completed her MD and PhD at the same institution. Her research focuses on sex and gender differences in ischemic heart disease, risk stratification, and coronary microcirculation. Dr. Cenko has contributed to multiple studies and published in top journals like JAMA Internal Medicine. The Journal of the American College of Cardiology and The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. She is Chair of the ESC Working Group on Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation and has received numerous awards for her contributions to cardiovascular research.
Kristina Haase
EMBL Barcelona, Spain
Kristina Haase is a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Barcelona, Spain. Her current work focuses on generating 3D tissue-specific human microvessels in vitro. Her multi disciplinary group works on vascularized tumor models, placental models, and models of coronary microvascular disease with funding from an ERC starting grant. Her team investigates fundamental questions related to sex hormones in vascular development and also develops new analytical tools. Kristina´s interests lie at the intersection of fundamental vascular biology driving the development of translatable tools.
Mohamad El Amki
University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland
Mohamad El Amki is a group leader at the Neurology Department at the University Hospital of Zurich and the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His current work focuses on understanding the complexity of the brain vasculature in health and disease. Fascinated by neuroscience, neuroimaging and novel technologies, his goal is to find novel approaches for improving macro and microvascular function in order to keep the brain’s circulatory system functional. Mohamad strives for performing translational research to bridge the gap between bench and bedside in cerebrovascular medicine.
Stefan Offermanns
Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Germany
Stefan Offermanns is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim and Professor of Pharmacology at Goethe University, Frankfurt. He studied medicine in Berlin and London and spent his postdoc years at the California Institute of Technology. He has been Professor and Director at the Pharmacological Institute, University of Heidelberg. His current work focuses on metabolic regulation and mechanisms of mechanotransduction in the cardiovascular system as well as on vascular mechanisms underlying tumor cell metastasis and dormancy.
