Shuhong Ma earned his BS in Basic Medicine from Chongqing Medical University. He is pursuing a PhD at Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, with a focus on gene therapy for hereditary heart disorders. Dr Feng Lan of the Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, supervised his current research. The study published in this issue was his doctoral research project, developing and evaluating the efficiency and safety of base editing in the heart. Shuhong is enthusiastic about using enhanced gene editing technologies to conduct translational research on inherited cardiovascular disorders.

Dr Xujie Liu earned his PhD in Cell Biology from Peking University, where he studied molecular imaging to visualize hallmarks of various tumors in vivo. In 2017, he joined Dr William Pu’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital to investigate the pathophysiological mechanisms of cardiac arrythmia in Barth Syndrome. Dr Liu ended his postdoctoral journey this August and joined Fuwai Hospital and Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in Shenzhen, China as an Associate Professor. His areas of expertise include iPSCs differentiation and genome editing techniques to develop models of heart diseases and using these models to develop cellular and molecular insights into disease pathogenesis. Dr Liu’s biggest dream is to develop a novel and practical therapeutic method that can cure patients with cardiovascular disease.

Dr Mingming Liu is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr Qiang Liu at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, China. She earned her PhD and MS under the mentorship of Dr Ding Ai at Tianjin Medical University. Her current research focuses on identifying the molecular mechanisms of inflammation on cardio-cerebrovascular diseases and developing new therapies. In her spare time, she enjoys fitness, baking and trying new cuisines.

Dr Meng Yan is currently a pathology technician in the Department of Pathology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, China. She completed her PhD training under the mentorship of Dr Ding Ai at Tianjin Medical University. She earned a BS and MS in Basic Medicine from Harbin Medical University. Her current research projects focus on the functional impact of macrophages in inflammatory cardiovascular diseases to explore potential therapeutic targets. She is currently a molecular pathologist, which further encourages her continued participation in studying the development and evolution of diseases at the molecular level. In her spare time, she loves cooking, playing badminton, Latin dancing and always enjoys trying something new.

Dr Jaganathan Subramani completed his DVM and MS in Pharmacology at the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai. He holds a PhD from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, where he studied nitric oxide signaling in vasculature from sepsis animals. During his postdoctoral fellowship in Dr Linda Shapiro’s laboratory at the University of Connecticut Health Center, he studied the role of CD13 in immune cell trafficking and ischemic muscle regeneration. He joined Dr Das’s group in 2013 and started studying protein redox modifications in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury, vascular aging and hypertension. To serve patients directly, he moved to the biopharmaceutical industry in 2020 and started developing therapeutics to treat cardiovascular diseases. His hobbies are reading, fishing and jogging.

Dr Venkatesh Kundumani-Sridharan earned his PhD from Central Food Technological Research Institute, India, where he studied the role of branching on protein secretion by filamentous fungi. As a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor, he studied endothelial biology in vascular wall remodeling and pathological angiogenesis at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis. In 2012, Dr Kundumani-Sridharan joined Dr Das’s group at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and focused his research on uncovering the protective mechanisms of RIPC in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury and biology of aged-related hypertension. His passion is to develop precision medicine to combat cardiovascular diseases. Outside work, he enjoys biking, fishing with his family and cooking.

Dr Dunpeng Cai is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr Shiyou Chen in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri. He earned his PhD from the Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Missouri with research focused on abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and atherosclerosis. His long-term interests are to develop and apply novel therapeutic methods to complex cardiovascular diseases. To achieve this goal, he has been developing his skills and capabilities in molecular and cell biology, mouse microsurgery, computer-aided drug design and bioinformatics. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with family.

Dr Ying Wang is a senior postdoctoral fellow in Pharmacology at the University of California, Davis. After completing her PhD at Fudan University, Shanghai, Ying Joined Dr Yang Kevin Xiang’s laboratory in 2017. Her research focuses on the compartmentalization and heterogeneity of subcellular G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling in cardiac diseases. She was awarded the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship for investigating the disrupted spatiotemporal regulation of β-adrenergic receptor signaling in heart failure. Aside from research, Ying is a member of the Departmental Sustainability Committee and enjoys playing tennis.

Dr Michael G Levin earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and his MD from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He returned to the University of Pennsylvania for his internal medicine residency training and remained at Penn for his cardiology fellowship. His research is focused on using large genomic and electronic health record datasets to better understand the influence of genetic variation in cardiometabolic disease, and, in particular, understand the relationships between cardiovascular risk factors and disease in different vascular beds. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Translational Research degree while completing his cardiology fellowship training.