SoT nucleus members
Dr. Carolina Balbi
Area of expertise: Paracrine communication, extracellular vesicles, heart fibrosis, cardiac repair and regeneration
Dr. Balbi started her research on paracrine communication in cardiovascular disease during her PhD at University of Genoa, Italy. As a PhD student she investigated the role of human amniotic fluid stem cells secretome as therapeutic tool for myocardial infarction. After her PhD degree, in 2018 she moved as PostDoctoral fellow in the Cellular and Molecular Cardiology lab of the Laboratories for Translational Research at Istituto Cardiocentro Ticino-Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (ICCT-EOC), Switzerland. Here she continued her research on the therapeutic and regenerating potential of extracellular vesicles from human cardiac mesenchymal progenitor cells on different cardiovascular disease. In 2021 she got her first research grant, from Swiss Heart Foundation, becoming project leader in the lab. Her current research is aimed to understand the role of circulating extracellular vesicles in healthy and
pathological conditions. She recently developed a 3D model of human heart combining iPS-derived cardiomyocyte, cardiac fibroblast and aortic endothelial cell; a fundamental tool to upgrade the results obtained during her research.
Dr. Jan Willem Buikema
Since 2009 Dr. Jan Willem Buikema has studied the effects of embryonic Wnt signals on growth of the ventricular chambers and pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Scientifically, Jan Willem is interested in the molecular targets for the prevention and/or cure of diverse genetic forms of cardiomyopathy in men and women. Unlike, most current medical treatments in heart failure, the future of patient-tailored therapies acknowledge the diversity between patients and will lead to “one-pill-per-patient” regimens. Dr. Jan Willem Buikema combines his research interest as a cardiologist at the Amsterdam Heart Center, specialized in heart failure treatment. Previously, Dr. Buikema trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, Stanford University and Utrecht Medical Center. At a national level Jan Willem is involved in Young @ Heart; Heart and the Dutch Cardiovascular Alliance. Jan Willem is excited to join SoT and promotes diversity and inclusivity among ESC.
Dr. Soumaya Ben-Aicha
Area of expertise: hypercholesterolaemia, cardioimmunology, preventive cardiology, coronary artery disease
Dr Soumaya Ben-Aicha earned her PhD at the Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. During her PhD programme, she studied the impact of hypercholesterolaemia over the HDLs on coronary artery disease and consequent myocardial infarction in large-animal models. Moreover, her intense contribution to further projects, based on the pleiotropic effects of statin-treatment, resulted in intellectual property and collaboration from the private sector as well as numerous publications as first and co-author. Dr Ben-Aicha did a stay at the Universitatklinikum-Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, to analyse in parallel the impact of statins on the cardiovascular rhythm.
She later moved to London as a postdoctoral research associate at the Imperial College London (ICL), founded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). She is currently working on the impact of human-derived nanoparticles on macrophages and T cells in the pre-clinical and clinical arena while being involved in university teaching work.
Dr Ben-Aicha presented all those studies at different congresses, receiving prestigious honours and awards at the national and international level (ESC, ESCI, SEC, FCBV…).
Dr. Emiel van der Vost
Area of expertise: atherosclerosis, chemokine-receptors, high-density lipoproteins, immune-lipid crosstalk
Dr. Emiel van der Vorst obtained his PhD in Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine from the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), The Netherlands in 2015, by studying the effects of high-density lipoproteins on inflammation. For his postdoctoral period he investigated the role of chemokines and chemokine-receptors in atherosclerosis at the Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention (IPEK) in Munich, Germany, resulting in several high-impact publications. Since 2019, he has worked as group leader at the Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research (IMCAR) in Aachen, Germany, as well as at CARIM and IPEK.
Currently his research is focusing on elucidating various mechanisms by which the lipid metabolism interacts with the immune system in the context of cardiovascular disease, especially atherosclerosis.
His work is funded by various prestigious (inter)national personal grants and he is member of the editorial boards of several cardiovascular focused journals.
Dr. Gemma Chiva-Blanch, Spain
Area of expertise: Extracellular vesicles as biomarkers of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases; Nutrition and atherothrombosis
Dr. Gemma Chiva-Blanch obtained a PhD in Medicine from the University of Barcelona, Spain. During this period, she investigated the effects different food compounds and dietary patterns on cellular and soluble biomarkers of atherosclerosis. She obtained two postdoctoral competitive contracts from the Spanish Government, to work at the Catalan Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (ICCC) in Barcelona. There she studied the potential of extracellular vesicles as biomarkers of different cardiovascular pathological stages. She performed a research stage at the Centre for Clinical Heart Research, Department of Cardiology, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, Norway, deepening into the relationship between thrombosis, myocardial infarction and cardiovascular mortality and the levels and phenotype of extracellular vesicles.
She is currently a CIBEROBN Research Fellow at the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) of Barcelona, Spain. Her current research is primarily focused on the role of extracellular vesicles in atherothrombosis, diabetes and obesity, as well as on the study of the influence of diet in extracellular vesicle shedding in the context of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Julien Barc, France
Area of expertise: genetics, epigenetics and molecular mechanism of ventricular arrhythmia
Julien Barc’s group leads genetics and epigenetics research programs on the inherited cardiac arrhythmia at l’institut du thorax in Nantes, FR where he obtained his PhD in genetics of ventricular cardiac arrhythmia. Julien spent 5 years at the department of Experimental Cardiology of Amsterdam, a world leader group in genetics and functional studies on cardiac arrhythmias. He dedicated this early part of his carrier to identify new syndromes, genes and mutations associated with inherited cardiac arrhythmia at risk of sudden death. More recently Julien developed research programs on patient population to investigate the role of common variants in cardiac disorders. He also participates to a national program on the French genome variability “GOLD”. Lastly, our capability to sequence the entire genome (i.e non-coding region) conducts Julien to explore the role of regulatory region by genome editing in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. His research is supported by national (ANR, French Federation of Cardiology, regional council rising star grants) and European grants (European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases, Marie Sklodowska Curie IF, ESC research grant). Julien received prestigious awards such as the French Cardiology Society Prize Edouard Coraboeuf and the Descartes-Huygens prize from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Till 2020, he was co-leading the “Réseau Avenir GRRC” a national network on cardiovascular research dedicated to young fellows.
SoT advisors
Dr. Monika Gladka, The Netherlands
Area of expertise: Cardiac Repair, Gene Therapy
Dr. Monika Gladka is currently an Assistant Professor at the University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Her current research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate cardiac repair, intending to identify new players to develop novel, improved gene therapies. She uses several state-of-the-art techniques such as single-cell sequencing, enabling an in-depth mechanistic understanding of the biological processes in injured cardiomyocytes. In 2016 and 2020, she received two prestigious Dr. E. Dekker personal grants from the Dutch Heart Foundation for heart repair research. She is actively involved in several cardiac societies acting as a board member of Young@Heart from the Netherlands Heart Institute and nucleus member of the Scientists of Tomorrow from the European Society of Cardiology.
Dr. Rui Adao, Portugal
Area of expertise: Pathomechanisms of pulmonary arterial hypertension and right ventricular failure
Dr Rui Adão, is a Biologist with a PhD degree in Cardiovascular Sciences obtained at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (Portugal), where he is currently working as a postdoctoral research scientist at the Cardiovascular Research and Development Center - UnIC.
During his PhD training, Rui developed a strong expertise in animal models of pulmonary arterial hypertension (e.g., monocrotaline, hypoxia-Sugen5416) as well as cardiac function evaluation in vivo and in vitro, sparking a particular interested in the role of Urocortin-2 in pulmonary arterial hypertension and adaptation of the right ventricle to pressure overload (Adão R et al. Cardiovascular Research 2018).
Rui has made a significant contribution to this scientific field as exemplified by several high impact original publications as first- or co-author.
His current research focuses on elucidating the role and therapeutic potential of novel small molecules (e.g., small peptides and microRNAs) in the setting of pulmonary arterial hypertension and associated heart failure.
Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.