Fall 2018: Seminar Series


September 18, 2018


Jason Nasse, PhD 

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Mentor: Carmela Abraham, PhD)

“Identifying Klotho Transcription Factors and Protein Interactions”


September 25, 2018

Mark Fishman, MD

Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University

“Genetics of Social Behavior in Zebrafish”


October 2, 2018 

Guillermo Tearney MD, PhD

Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

“Future of Intravascular OCT”

Intravascular OCT (IVOCT) is a clinically-available, catheter-based imaging modality that obtains high (10 µm) resolution images of the coronary wall. Currently, IVOCT is being pursued as a method for improving PCI outcomes and may have some utility for detecting microstructural features of vulnerable plaque. While IVOCT is very powerful, it is incapable of detecting more than superficial architectural morphology and thus does cannot completely characterize intracoronary lesions. In our laboratory, we have been developing newer IVOCT technologies that address this gap. Multimodality technologies  such as OCT-near infrared fluorescence (OCT-NIRF) and OCT-near infrared spectroscopy (OCT-NIRS) offer the potential to image complementary structural and molecular/chemical information. A more advanced 1-µm-resolution form of OCT (µOCT) makes it possible to see cells and sub cellular structures in the vessel wall using a coronary catheter. This next generation of OCT technology will improve our capacity to better understand human coronary atherosclerosis and precisely characterize coronary phenotypes in individual patients.


October 9, 2018

Matthias Nahrendorf MD, PhD

Professor, Harvard Medical School

“Macrophages in cardiovascular health”


October 16, 2018

Isabelle Deschenes, PhD

Professor, Case Western Reserve University

“Identifying Mechanisms Linked to Sudden Cardiac Death”


October 19, 2018

Douglas Lewandowski, PhD

Professor of Internal Medicine, Ohio State University 

“Targeting Maladaptive Metabolic Remodeling in and Around the Failing Heart”


December 11, 2018

Navin K. Kapur, MD

Executive Director, The CardioVascular Center for Research and Innovation 

Associate Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine

“Molecular Mechanisms and Myocardial Remodeling: What can we learn from Loading and Unloading the Heart”


December 18., 2018

Saumya Das, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Co-Director of Resynchronization and Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics Program

“Leveraging RNAs as functional biomarkers and novel therapeutics in heart disease”