"A crown per heartbeat" in Sweden
Meetings
On March 14th, Samuel Andersson from the ULUND team spoke at an event called “en krona per hjärtslag” (“a crown per heartbeat”) in Helsingborg, Sweden. The public event organized by high school students from Johannes Hedberggymnasiet, aimed to raise funds for cardiovascular research by collecting as many Swedish crowns as there are heartbeats in 2 hours (duration of the event).
In his talk entitled “Hjärt-kärlsjukdomar och forskning – en kort historia” (“Cardiovascular diseases and research – a short story”), Samuel discussed the history of cardiovascular research and immunology introducing his PhD research, focusing on studying B cells and their role in atherosclerosis.
Samuel emphasized how the activities at ULUND have contributed to cardiovascular research through SCAPIS, FIMCOD, and other studies that have led to compounds being tested in clinical trials. Overall, the event was a great success, surpassing the original fundraising goal by almost three times.
Photo by Rickard Lindblom
Talk at the Annual Scandinavian Atherosclerosis Conference
On Thursday, March 14, 2024, Pernilla Katra (ULUND), a PhD-student in the B-specific consortium, delivered a talk entitled ”Age-associated B cells are clonally expanded, aggravate murine plaque development and are associated with coronary events in humans” based on recent findings in the B-specific project at the 30th Annual Scandinavian Atherosclerosis Conference held March 13–16, 2024 at Krogerup Højskole, Humlebæk, Denmark.
Pernilla’s talk was selected from submitted abstracts to be presented orally at the conference. The annual conference has been held since 1994 and is organized by the Scandinavian Society of Atherosclerosis Research founded in 1977 (SSAR, www.ssar.dk). The aim of the society is to promote atherosclerosis research with special emphasis on Scandinavian as well as international collaboration, mainly by organizing the annual international conference on atherosclerosis research.
Theranostic target molecules for adapter CAR-T cell therapies
Dr. Anja Feldman (HZRD) participated at the IGLD 26th yearly symposium held between 7th-9th March 2024 in Leipzig, Germany.
Dr. Feldman's talk was entitled 'Theranostic target molecules for adapter CAR-T cell therapies'.
Radio interview
Meetings
On February 24th 2024 Assoc. Prof. Bram Slütter (ULEI) did a radio interview on national newsradio discussing recent advances in the cardiovascular field (NPO1).
Presentation Young PI meeting
Meetings
The Young Cardiovascular PI meeting took place on the 24th of January 2024 at Bergeijk, Netherlands. The meeting was attended by B-specific coordinator Assoc. Prof. Amanda Foks (invited) and PhD candidate Jill de Mol. Amanda and Jill presented research on single-cell profiling of age-associated B-cell immunity in atherosclerosis.
Visit from Harteraad
Meetings
On the 30th of November 2023 Prof. Ilze Bot organized an event at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) (Leiden University, The Netherlands) inviting the representatives of Harteraad (Dutch patient organization) which represents the interests of about 1.7 million people with cardiovascular disease.
The event included a site visit, presentations, and lab tour. Besides Prof. Ilze Bot, Assoc. Profs. Amanda Foks and Bram Slütter actively participated in the meeting and presented their research.
The title of the presentation introducing the B-specific project was ‘Het verouderde afweersysteem in slagaderverkalking: een nieuwe biomarker of behandeling?’ (English translation: The aged immune system in atherosclerosis: a new biomarker or treatment?)
Kick Off Meeting 2023
23rd October 2023
Faculty Club, Rapenburg 73
Leiden - Netherlands
The B-specific consortium led by Amanda Foks (Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, The Netherlands) successfully kicked-off the project B-specific (B-cell related gene and protein markers with prognostic and therapeutic value for CVD). The event was held on the 23rd of October 2023 at the Faculty Club (Academy Building) in Leiden (The Netherlands). Thanks to European Innovation Council (EIC) (Grant Nr. 101115159) for supporting the research to discover new biomarkers and therapeutic targets for atherosclerosis.