12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM
SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM SPONSOR:
2020 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Victor J. Dzau, MD
President of the National Academy of Medicine. Vice Chair of the National Research Council. Chancellor Emeritus and James B. Duke Professor of medicine at Duke University and past President and CEO of the Duke University Health System. Co-Chairman of the Healthy Brains Global Initiative.
Dr. Dzau is an internationally acclaimed leader and scientist whose work has improved health care in the United States and globally. His seminal work in cardiovascular medicine and genetics laid the foundation for the development of the class of lifesaving drugs known as ACE inhibitors, used globally to treat hypertension and heart failure. Dr. Dzau pioneered gene therapy for vascular disease and was the first to introduce DNA decoy molecules to block transcriptions in humans in vivo. His pioneering research in cardiac regeneration led to the Paracrine Hypothesis of stem cell action and his recent strategy of direct cardiac reprogramming using microRNA. He maintains an active NIH-funded research laboratory.
The 2020 Rising Star Award Winners will present their innovative research projects. Q&A sessions will follow.
Watch 2019's Rising Star Awardee Presentations below.
2020 FEATURED SPEAKER
Michelle G. Craske, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Miller Endowed Chair. Director of the Anxiety and Depression Research Center. Associate Director of the Staglin Family Music Center for Behavioral and Brain Health, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Executive Committee UCLA Depression Grand Challenge.
For more than three decades, Dr. Craske has been trying to understand what makes some people prone to anxiety and depression. She's studied what biomarkers, behaviors and thinking patterns contribute to these conditions, and how to use that knowledge to develop better treatments. Craske's research aims to make people with depression — or those prone to depression — more motivated to work toward and to savor rewards. This "reward sensitivity" is often dampened by depression and Craske thinks it's an avenue for potential treatments to target. For example, in her studies of the effects of kindness and compassion on depression, she has found that training people how to more regularly engage in acts of kindness can ease their symptoms. Craske and colleagues also are studying how to integrate virtual reality into treatment for anxiety and depression.
