Agenda

Symposium Introduction

9:00 AM - 9:10 AM - Dr. Mana Parast Opening Remarks

9:10 AM - 9:25 AM - Special presentation by Mr. Rolf Benirschke 

Session 1

9:25 AM-10:15 AM - Keynote 1

"What the Evolution of the Placenta Can Teach Us About Cardiovascular Risk in Women"
B Natterson-Horowitz, MD
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology Professor of Medicine, UCLA Division of Cardiology

10:15 AM - 10:30 AM Coffee Break

Session 2

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM - Conservation Panel featuring guest speakers from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance:
Oliver Ryder, PhD - “The Frozen Zoo: Evolution of a Unique Resource for Biodiversity Discovery and Conservation”
Marisa Korody, PhD - "Stem cells to the rescue: Saving the northern white rhino from extinction"
Barbara Durrant, PhD -  "The ART of Saving Rhinos"

Session 3 - New Signaling Players in Perinatal Health

11:30 AM - 11:50 AM Kellie Breen Church, PhD - “Deciphering brainstem noradrenergic circuits modulating women’s reproductive health”

11:50 AM - 12:10 PM Francesca Soncin, PhD - “From human to rhinos: expansion of stem cell models to study placental development”

12:10 PM - 12:30 PM Nicole Coufal, MD, PhD - “Improving bone marrow transplant of umbilical cord progenitors for pediatric neurodegenerative disorders”

12:30 PM - 1:15 PM Lunch Break

Session 4

1:15 PM - 2:05 PM Keynote 2

"Leveraging Evolution and Comparative Biology for Maternal Health"
Amy Boddy, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Session 5 - Multiple models of cardiovascular development

2:15 PM - 2:35 PM Introduction by David McCulley, MD - “Pulmonary vascular defects associated with congenital diaphragmatic hernia”

2:35 PM - 2:55 PM Deborah Yelon, PhD - “Sculpting the Heart: Dynamic Regulation of Organ Dimensions in Zebrafish”

2:55 PM - 3:15 PM Emma Farley, PhD - “Affinity-optimizing enhancer variants disrupt development”

3:15 PM - 3:35 PM Stephanie Lindsey, PhD - "Quantitation of early cardiovascular flow dynamics in health and disease”

3:35 PM- 3:45 PM Concluding Remarks

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Poster session with refreshments