July 6, 2017
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Meetings
Vasculata 2017
Chicago, IL 
July 24-27, 2017
Registration is still open!   

 
Vascular Biology
Monterey, CA  
October 15-19, 2017
Abstract deadline: Aug 1 


20th IVBM
Helsinki, Finland
June 3-7, 2018 
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Contributors
Organize the 2018 Pre-Conference Meeting
The 2015 Pre-Conference Meeting organized by Juliana Marulanda (McGill University) and Jennifer Fang (Yale University) was very successful and all those that attended wanted to see it continue at subsequent Vascular Biology meetings. We are very much looking forward to this year's presentation, organized by Mary Wallingford (University of Washington) and Heena Kumra (McGill University).  George Davis (University of Missouri) is the featured speaker.

If you are interested in helping to organize this meeting in 2018, please send an email by July 20 to bernadette@navbo.org stating your interest and experience, if any, in organizing meetings, workshop, symposia, etc., prior involvement in leadership positions, and why you would like a chance at this opportunity.  Please include your CV or NIH bio-sketch with your email.  Current membership in NAVBO is a criterion. The 2018 meeting organizers, Masanori Aikawa, Ondine Cleaver, William Muller and William Sessa will review the applications and select two co-organizers.  We would like to select one postdoctoral fellow and one graduate student, but this is not required. 

The session will consist mainly of talks from selected VB2018 poster presenters, but can also include a guest speaker, a presentation on Career Development, etc.  The Workshops featured at Vascular Biology 2018 are Biology of Signaling in the Cardiovascular System and Vascular Inflammation.  The Pre-Conference Meeting will take place on Sunday, October 14 from 1-5pm at Gurney's Newport Resort and Marina in Newport, Rhode Island.  
NAVBO Deadlines to Watch For
Meritorious Award Nominations

Travel Awards to the GRC on Angiogenesis
Application deadline extended to July 10
Go to: http://www.navbo.org/awards/trainee-awards/travel-awards-to-grc for information and criteria

Vascular Biology 2017
Abstract deadline - August 1
Early bird discount - August 15
http://www.navbo.org/vb2017

Spotlight on Trainees
The Future of Graduate Student Unionization
"Last year, students at private universities were granted collective bargaining rights," reports Alana Semuels in The Atlantic, but "[a] reversal may be coming." The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees workplaces in the private sector, has vacillated on this issue over the years. The NLRB ruled in 2000 that graduate students at New York University were employees and thus had a statutory right to engage in collective bargaining. That ruling was reversed in a case involving students at Brown University in 2004, then restored in 2016 by an NLRB with a majority of members appointed by President Obama.  President Trump's nominees for two of the five seats on the NLRB are presently awaiting approval, and it appears likely that the board will revisit the "students-as-employees" once the board is fully constituted.
Member News
Congratulations!
Kazuyo Kegan, PhD,  Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, recently received a Proof of Concept grant from the American Thoracic Society (ATS)/Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA). The grant's target audience is investigators who are interested in early-stage pulmonary hypertension research.  Read more about Dr. Kegan's award at   https://phassociation.org/research/pharesearchprogram/proof-of-concept/proof-of-concept-winners/ 
Welcome to our Newest Members:
Kyung Baek, UCLA
Debapria Das, Stony Brook University
Shiemaa Khogali, University of Toronto
Laura-lee Caruso, University of Toronto
David Ngai, University of Toronto TBEP
If you have news to share with your colleagues, send it to membership@navbo.org.
 Recent Publications by NAVBO Members

Cell adhesion controlled by adhesion G-protein coupled receptor GPR124/ADGRA2 is mediated by a protein complex comprising Intersectins and Elmo/Dock
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Developmental angiogenesis and the maintenance of blood brain barrier involve endothelial cell adhesion, which are linked to cytoskeletal dynamics. GPR124 (also known as TEM5/ADGRA2) is an Adhesion GPCR-family member that plays a pivotal role in brain angiogenesis and in ensuring a tight blood-brain barrier.  Read more

 

ROS-induced ROS release orchestrated by Nox4, Nox2, and mitochondria in VEGF signaling and angiogenesis
American Journal of Physiology - Cell Physiology
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) derived from NADPH oxidase (NOX) and mitochondria play a critical role in growth factor-induced switch from a quiescent to an angiogenic phenotype in endothelial cells (ECs). However, how highly diffusible ROS produced from different sources can coordinate to stimulate VEGF signaling and drive the angiogenic process remains unknown.  Read more

 

The critical role of SENP1-mediated GATA2 deSUMOylation in promoting endothelial activation in graft arteriosclerosis
Nature Communications
Data from clinical research and our previous study have suggested the potential involvement of SENP1, the major protease of post-translational SUMOylation, in cardiovascular disorders. Here, we investigate the role of SENP1-mediated SUMOylation in graft arteriosclerosis (GA), the major cause of allograft failure.  Read more

 

RASA1 regulates the function of lymphatic vessel valves in mice
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Capillary malformation-arteriovenous malformation (CM-AVM) is a blood and lymphatic vessel (LV) disorder that is caused by inherited inactivating mutations of the RASA1 gene, which encodes p120 RasGAP (RASA1), a negative regulator of the Ras small GTP-binding protein.  Read more

 

Fibulin4 is important for maintaining arterial wall integrity in conduit but not muscular arteries
Science Advances
Homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in fibulin-4 (FBLN4) lead to autosomal recessive cutis laxa type 1B (ARCL1B), a multisystem disorder characterized by significant cardiovascular abnormalities, including abnormal elastin assembly, arterial tortuosity, and aortic aneurysms.  Read more

Industry News
Platelet-mediated Dampening of Host Immune Response in Cancer  
New cancer treatments that reverse suppression of patients' immune responses have provided dramatic benefit in some cases. New research published in Science Immunology by investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina and Zhengzhou University reveals enhancement of adoptive T cell therapy by targeting platelets in murine tumor models. The authors conclude that TGFβ released from platelets decreases T cell function through the expression of the TGFβ-docking receptor glycoprotein A repetitions predominant. These findings suggest inhibition of platelet function may serve as a useful adjunctive element to cancer immunotherapies.
 
Bridging the Divide between Faculty and Administration  
Elizabeth Lehfeldt, Dean of the Mandel Honors College and Professor of History at Cleveland State University, bemoans the belittling of faculty whose career paths take them into administrative positions, leaving behind the supposed purity of traditional teaching/research appointments. In a recent   Tales Told out of School blog entry, Dr. Lehfeldt writes that such derision "... assumes that once we cross over we will be corrupted into the presumed bad practices of our administrator colleagues." She calls for those in the academic world to instead recognize "...that there are talented and collegial administrators who work tirelessly to put the interests of students and faculty members front and center" and that "[t]he so-called dark side will get a lot brighter if we recruit faculty members with integrity, purpose and good ideas to serve in its ranks."
 
What Defines Excellence in a Scientist?  
Inescapable in the processes by which grant applications, manuscripts, promotion dossiers, and award nominations are assessed is the uncomfortable conflict between objective measures and subjective judgment.   Writing in Nature , Simine Vazire (Associate Professor of Psychology at UC-Davis) professes that on "... my optimistic days, I can believe that, despite all the noise, there's still a reliable signal: that we mostly manage to publish, fund and hire people who do the better research." On darker days, she admits to doubt in such faith, prone to falling back on the assumption that "...researchers with more grant money, awards, publications and citations must be better than the rest." The bias that accompanies knowledge of an investigator's status is difficult to set aside, but Dr. Vazire urges her readers to "...focus less on eminence and more on its less glamorous cousin, rigour."
   
Job Postings
Job Title
Company
Location
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL
Lymphatic Research
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL
Calendar of Events
July 8-13, 2017
International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2017 Congress
July 24-27, 2017
Vasculata 2017
Aug. 11-14, 2017
2017 APS Conference: Cardiovascular Aging, New Frontiers and Old Friends
Sept. 27-28, 2017
2017 NHLBI Symposium on Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine
Oct. 4-7, 2017
4th Latin American Glycobiology Meeting
Oct. 15-19, 2017
Vascular Biology 2017
June 3-7, 2018
20th International Vascular Biology Meeting
Advocating for Science
Contacting Your Representatives Can Make a Difference for Science
If you are a U.S. citizen, let your U.S. representatives hear from you and encourage them to be advocating for science. There are many methods by which to reach out -  from attending meetings or personal visits to congressional offices, to doing something as simple as writing a postcard.  Be sure to reach out to your district and state representatives. Now, in addition to funding the NIH budget and other federal biomedical research budgets, scientists must clearly express how other policies impact scientific collaboration, a key component in the scientific process.

For more information on public policy affecting the scientific community and ways that you can help, please visit NAVBO's Advocacy page - www.navbo.org/resources/advocate

Here are links to organizations that encourage, support and aid science advocates:
Coalition for the Life Sciences
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)
Research!America

If you are aware  of other groups, please let us know and we will post them in future newsletter issues (send to info@navbo.org). 
North American Vascular Biology Organization | bernadette@navbo.org | http://www.navbo.org
18501 Kingshill Road
Germantown, MD 20874-2211