Dr Dongwon Choi earned his BS and PhD under the supervision of Dr Seongman Kang in Molecular Biology from Korea University, South Korea. During his graduate studies, he became interested in epigenetic regulation of tumor development. In 2010, Dr Choi joined Dr Hong’s lab at UCLA with the aim to study lymphatic system and he is now an Assistant Professor of Research in the Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine. Currently, his research focuses on the mechanotransduction of lymphangiogenesis and the lymphatic system in neurological disorders.

Dr Joseph Kamtchum Tatuene is a Neurologist with expertise in Neuroepidemiology, Neurovascular Ultrasound and Translational Stroke Research. He completed his medical training at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon), Neurology residency and stroke fellowship at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and laboratory training at the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom). He then joined the University of Alberta Doctoral Neuroscience Program where he studied the epidemiology, pathobiology and biomarkers of carotid atherosclerosis and founded the Carotid Atherosclerosis and Stroke Collaboration (CASCO), an international research consortium aiming to improve stroke risk stratification in subjects with carotid atherosclerosis through score design and identification of novel biomarkers. His long-term career goal is to establish a Clinical and Translational Research Centre in Africa with the mission of improving local stroke prevention strategies and training the future generations of African Neurologists. Besides work, he enjoys listening to classics and religious songs, singing in choirs, jogging, reading, writing and watching documentaries on various topics.

Dr Jihyun Jang is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She began her scientific research career in cardiovascular disease as a graduate student at Seoul National University in South Korea. Currently, she mainly focuses on studying the function of epigenetic factors, such as histone deacetylases in noncardiomyocytes to regulate myocardial development. She will continue to put her efforts into heart regeneration studies following this current study. While actively pursuing her research interest in cardiovascular biology, outside the lab she enjoys playing tennis.

Dr Di Zhu is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Drs Xinliang Ma and Yajing Wang at Thomas Jefferson University. She earned her PhD and MD under the mentorship of Dr Ling Tao at Xijing Hospital, China. Her research focuses on ischemic heart failure mechanisms and potential therapeutic strategies. She is currently an endocrinologist and working on translating scientific discoveries to improve human health. She enjoys reading, dancing and spending time with her family in her free time.

Dr Zhen Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr Xin-Liang Ma and Dr Yajing Wang in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr Zhang earned his PhD in 2015 from Hunan University College of Biology. His long-term goal is to identify potential therapeutic targets in cardiovascular injury/diseases. His research focuses on remote organ communication in health and diabetes and the underlying mechanisms mediating adverse communication. He is on his way to being an independent PI. Besides research and science, he enjoys reading, E-sports and Diet Coke.

Dr Kyoungmin Park is a Research Associate at the Joslin Diabetes Center and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He earned his BS in Genetic Engineering from Paichai University, South Korea, his MS in Biological Engineering from Inha University, South Korea, and his PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Kyoungmin has studied the effect of selective insulin resistance of vascular endothelial cells (EC) in cardiovascular disease aimed at identifying serine/threonine phosphorylation sites in p85α of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) in diabetes and insulin resistance. He has also tested the novel hypothesis that insulin signaling on capillary EC regulates the differentiation of perivascular progenitor cells to the development of beige/brown adipocytes and increases the production of lipokines, 12,13-diHOME, resulting in inhibiting diet-induced atherosclerosis in insulin resistance and diabetes.

Arce Domingo-Relloso is a mathematician and biostatistician, and a last year PhD student at the National Center for Epidemiology (Spain), with close collaboration with the Department of Environmental Health Sciences from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research focuses on developing statistical methods to study the role of epigenetic dysregulations caused by environmental factors in chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease. Arce’s career, which combines statistics, biology and medicine, shows the importance of multidisciplinary research and collaboration between different research areas to improve science. The ultimate goal of her research is to disentangle the biological link between environmental factors and disease, as well as to be able to create epigenetics-based biomarkers for early detection of disease.