Dear colleagues,
It is our great pleasure to announce that the Second Frontiers in Vascular Medicine meeting will be held between the 26 and 28 of October 2007 in Melbourne, Australia. The purpose of this scientific meeting is to bring together basic and clinical scientists with interests in vascular biology, disease and imaging, to address the recent advances in their areas of research and clinical work. The meeting also aims to promote active participation and more collaboration in the research of vascular biology and medicine amongst scientists and clinicians in universities, research institutes and hospitals.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee I am delighted to invite you to attend this scientific event. Looking forward to seeing you in Melbourne in October 2007.

Professor Paul M. Vanhoutte
Scientific Chair
Head, Department of Pharmacology
Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
The University of Hong Kong, China                                                                                                   

 

Frontiers in Vascular Medicine
Vascular disease, the major cause of myocardial infarction, stroke and gangrene, still represents the number one cause of death world-wide. Alarmingly, the socio-economic impact of vascular disease is predicted to increase even further in the future with the ‘aging’ and ‘Westernisation’ of much of the world’s population. Even with recent advances in therapy we do not know enough about the causes to reliably identify and treat a high proportion of cases, let alone substantially prevent vascular disease. Moreover, there is a need to move away from treating symptoms and current risk reduction strategies towards mechanism-based treatment and disease prevention. Recent breakthroughs in identifying novel mechanisms such as endogenous nitric oxide, the Nox/Duox gene family as sources of vascular oxidative stress, and a much deeper understanding of the renin-angiotensin system, are exciting new developments toward that long-term objective and represent therapeutically exploitable targets. These topics and more will be the focus of the 2nd International conference on Frontiers in Vascular Medicine (FVM 2007).

Following on from the resounding success of the previous FVM meeting in 2005, FVM 2007 will bring together internationally renowned experts in the field of Vascular Medicine with the brightest young emerging scientists to exchange and discuss state–of–the–art findings on the Frontiers in Vascular Medicine. Apart from this scientific exchange at the highest level, the meeting intends to foster future collaborations in international research structures.

The three-day program will cover a cross-section of hot topical areas including Cardiovascular Imaging, Clinical Biomarkers and Diagnostics for Cardiovascular Diseases, ROS and Endothelial Dysfunction, Cerebral and Microvascular Circulation, Stem cells, Venous Circulation and Emerging Cardiovascular Drugs. It will include a plenary lecture by Nobel Laureate Prof Ferid Murad as well as numerous keynote speakers. In addition, FVM 2007 will provide a framework for free oral and poster communications.

The Centre for Vascular Health
Since its launch at the first FVM in 2005, the Centre for Vascular Health (CVH) has matured into a cross-faculty, inter-institution and inter-disciplinary research centre at Monash. The mission of the CVH is to advance the understanding, diagnosis and therapy of cardiovascular disease and to make prevention and cure of stroke, heart and vascular disease a realistic option. To achieve this, the CVH has successfully built capacity in

– Molecular and Vascular Clinical Imaging,
– Biomarkers / in vitro diagnostics, and
– Drug Discovery.

These outcomes also represent the cornerstones of Frontiers in Vascular Medicine. We want to explore the frontiers in our field, question dogmas and discuss critical next steps. With this world class capacity in place and outstanding national and international collaborators, the CVH has all elements necessary to successfully develop a new paradigm for screening and diagnosis of subclinical atherosclerosis and hypertension as well as preventing its transition to deadly and costly clinical and symptomatic stages by implementation of novel personalized therapeutic regimes.

Thanks for sharing, discussing and advancing our vision.
Welcome to Melbourne, 

Professor Harald Schmidt
Director Centre for Vascular Health
Head of Pharmacology
School of Biomedical Sciences
Monash University