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Event Recap: Cardiovascular Devices, Diagnostics and Therapeutics Symposium

BioEngage held their first symposium of the year on February 28, 2017, titled “Cardiovascular Devices, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics”. The day-long symposium was sponsored by MyoKardia, Abbott, and Medtronic, and gave attendees an excellent opportunity to network, learn about opportunities to work with UW Bioengineering, and share their own work in cardiovascular healthcare. Over a dozen companies, five clinical programs, and several UW bioengineering labs attended and presented at the symposium, bringing with them a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives in cardiac healthcare and technologies.

The morning session began with several short talks focused on molecular therapies towards cardiac diseases, followed by short talks on device-based therapies. These included an implantable cardiovascular MEMS system, gene therapies to help remove cholesterol, and multimodality modeling for improved device development.

The mid-day break featured a poster competition. Attendees enjoyed lunch as they browsed through over a dozen posters from both companies and students in the field. Judges awarded Rebecca Zaunbrecher as the winner of ‘Best Poster’ for her poster titled “Genetically Engineered Human Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes to Understand the Functionality of Cronos Titin”, while attendees voted to give the ‘Best Overall’ award to Eric Juang for his poster titled “Engineered 3D Microvessels for the Study of Angiogenesis and Sonoporation.”

The afternoon plenary session featured longer talks by speakers from the Vascular Imaging Lab, Philips, UW Cardiology, and Medtronic. These talks covered several imaging techniques, as well as sensor-less diagnostics and the use of cadaveric models in the clinic. The afternoon also featured an excellent panel discussion on the future of medicine in cardiovascular healthcare. Panelists discussed the importance of simulation tools and precision medicine, noting the huge opportunity for collaboration between the groups present.

Thank you to our sponsors:

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