Young ACS arranged a diverse program with keynote speakers and posters and talks by our own ACS members. The keynote talks were given by prof. Alexander Vlaar (Amsterdam UMC) about hypotension management in the ICU and prof. Judith Sluimer (Maastricht UMC) about oxygen sensors in atherosclerosis. Based on the submitted abstracts, 8 ACS researchers were selected for an oral talk to present their projects to the ACS community. After last year’s successful introduction of poster pitches, the pitch sessions were held again. 10 ACS researchers were given 3 minutes to convince the audience to come visit their poster in the poster sessions. Between sessions there was the opportunity to network, socialize and enjoy a good cup of coffee or tea. Importantly, all participants could enjoy a good lunch with soup and healthy sandwiches. The day ended with something non-cardiovascular related: an excellent keynote talk of prof. Henkjan Honing (UvA) about what makes us musical animals. We are already looking forward to the event next year!
Awards
Five prizes were awarded during the 8th Annual ACS Symposium
Best publication
Joyce Man:
Man, J., Bosada, F. M., Scholman, K. T., Offerhaus, J. A., Walsh, R., van Duijvenboden, K., van Eif, V., Bezzina, C. R., Verkerk, A. O., Boukens, B. J., Barnett, P., & Christoffels, V. M. (2021). Variant Intronic Enhancer Controls SCN10A-short Expression and Heart Conduction.Circulation,144(3), 229–242. Read the article online in Circulation
Best presentation
Azar Kianzad: Long-term effects of pulmonary endarterectomy on right ventricular stiffness and fibrosis in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension
Alexandra Wiesinger: A single cell transcriptional roadmap of human pacemaker cell differentiation
Best pitch
Merel Peletier: Introducing a novel heart-on-chip system to model Ischemia Reperfusion Injury