Dr Dan Tyrrell is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr Daniel Goldstein’s laboratory at the University of Michigan. He completed his PhD in Dr Anthony Molina’s laboratory in Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Dan’s recent work demonstrates a positive feedback loop of increased IL-6 and mitochondrial dysfunction within the aging aorta that accelerates atherogenesis. His long-term goal is to determine how mitochondria and inflammation interact in multiple vascular beds with aging, and how these changes enhance disease. Dan enjoys running and biking when he isn’t spending time with his family (ie, chasing after his two young sons). He can be found on Twitter @dantyrr.

Dr Yujia Yue earned her BS in Medicine from Fudan University in China. She became interested in life sciences and basic biomedical research while earning her MD. She came to the US in 2014 and completed her PhD in May 2019 (mentor, Dr Raj Kishore) at the Center for Translational Medicine, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, focusing on stem cell-derived exosome in cardiac regeneration. After earning her PhD, Yujia joined Merck as an Associate Scientist. She is interested in furthering her scientific pursuit of translational medicine and drug discovery and plans to continue her scientific career in industry.

Dr Zhifen Chen is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr Chad Cowan’s group at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, where her research focuses on functional genomics of polygenic traits, including insulin resistance and glucose levels. She earned her PhD from Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2016 and her MS from Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 2012. She was mentored by Dr Karl-Ludwig Laugwitz, focussing on cardiac disease modelling using patient-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes, including a type of long QT syndrome and a case of familial dilated cardiomyopathy. The goal of her research is to identify unknown genes contributing to adipose insulin resistance and test their therapeutic potentials for obesity or type 2 diabetes and their related cardiometabolic comorbidities. Outside of the lab, she enjoys dancing, biking, and discussing life experiences and diverse fields of science. She plans to establish her own lab in the near future.

Julie Heffler is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania in the lab of Dr Ben Prosser. She began her career as an undergraduate at the University of Houston, where she earned her BS in Biochemistry. During her time at UH, she worked in the lab of Dr Kevin Morano at UT Health researching chaperones and protein misfolding. Currently, her research at UPenn has focused on the attachment of the cytoskeleton to the nucleus in adult cardiomyocytes and how these cells sense mechanical signals, continuing her long-held interest in cell sensing and signal transduction. She can be found on Twitter @julieheffler.

Dr Yoriko Heianza is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at Tulane University. She earned her PhD in Medicine from the University of Tsukuba, Japan. She previously earned her BS from the Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto, Japan, where she gained a broad knowledge of nutrition. She has been exploring genetic, metabolomic, diet/lifestyle factors in the development of obesity and cardiovascular disease in Dr Lu Qi’s Lab at Tulane University, with the support of an AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has also received two awards for her research from the AHA.