New pharmacological targets in the microcirculation

A joint symposium organized by the British Pharmacological Society and the British Microcirculation Society on 'New pharmacological targets in the microcirculation' will take place from 9.30am - 12.30pm on Thursday 19th December 2013. The Symposium is being organised by BMS members Professor Donald Singer, University of Warwick, Professor Nicola Brown, University of Sheffield and Professor Christopher Garland, University of Oxford [DS and CG are also BPS members].

This is one of the 10 symposia taking planned for Pharmacology 2013 - the next BPS annual winter meeting, to be held Tuesday 17th - Thursday 19th December, 2013  at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London.
 
Pharmacology 2013 website

Download microcirculation symposium programme 

See more on the programme, abstract submission and registration on Professor Singer's blog.

MicroCirc2012, Keble College: Oral and Poster Presentations

A series of posts from the MicroCirc2012 conference at Keble College Oxford, 4-6 July, co-organized by the British Microcirculation Society and the US Microcirculatory Society.

Here is a report by BMS Committee member Carolyn Staton on the oral and poster presentations and awards at MicroCirc2012.

'MicroCirc2012 was a truly excellent conference, held at Keble College, Oxford from 4^th-6^th July.  It was organised by Chris Garland on behalf of The British Microcirculation Society and The Microcirculatory Society and ran incredibly smoothly, with most delegates staying in college and enjoying the facilities there, including two excellent dinners.

As well as the interesting and informative plenary and key note lectures from experts in the field of microcirculation there were 30 short oral communications, many of which were given by early career scientists including intercalating medics and PhD students. These oral communications were very well attended and each presentation was followed by a very lively discussion session which greatly added to the import of the conference, and the positive experience of all involved.  Early career scientists/clinicians were eligible for the best oral presentation award which was judged by a panel of experts from both societies and was awarded as follows:

Living Systems Best Oral Presentation award: Dr Andrew Salmon (University of Bristol). Altered endothelial glycocalyx links albuminuria and widespread vascular dysfunction.

The poster sessions of the conference were particularly lively and interactive, with 124 posters displayed over the three day period.  There was a great atmosphere in all poster sessions with people coming together to discuss numerous different aspects of the microcirculation; from angiogenesis, endothelial progenitor/stem cells, calcium channels, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and pregnancy to name just a few. Everyone was able to discuss their posters with experts in the field providing a great opportunity for the early career investigators to gain feedback on their research and to learn about other aspects of the microcirculation or diseases associated with it. As a reflection of these wonderful poster sessions, all posters from early career researchers were judged by experts from both societies and several prizes were awarded as follows:

BMS Poster Prize 1: Rhiannon Baggot (University of Wolverhampton, UK). VEGF-induced angiogenesis is negatively regulated by the plasma membrane calcium ATPase.

BMS Poster Prize 2: Sebastian Oltean (University of Bristol, UK). VEGF₁₆₅b slows diabetic nephropathy progression in type 1 diabetes rodent models.

Terence Ryan Best Clinical Poster: Augusto Montezano (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada). Aldosterone-induces vascular pro-inflammatory and fibrotic effects through Nox1-dependent mechanisms independently of blood pressure changes.

Wiley Blackwell Poster Prize: Timea Beleznai (University of Oxford, UK).  Pressure-dependent role for TRPV4 channels in modulating spontaneous endothelial cell calcium events in rat cremasteric arterioles.

Moor Instruments Innovation in Technology Prize: James Bell (Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter, UK). Structural Changes in Loaded Blood Vessels.

Congratulations to all who took part in both the oral and poster presentations for helping to make this a wonderful conference for all who attended. Thank you also to all judges for helping to award prizes to our excellent early career scientists.  We look forward to seeing you all at future BMS and associated conferences.'

Giovanni Mann discussing vascular changes in abnormal pregnancy at MicroCirc2102

A series of posts from the MicroCirc2012 conference at Keble College Oxford, 4-6 July, co-organized by the British Microcirculation Society (BMS) and the US Microcirculatory Society.

Views expressed in these posts and videos are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BMS. 

Giovanni Mann at Keble for MicroCirc2012

In this vodcast, King's College London's Professor Giovanni Mann is in discussion with Professor Donald Singer, University of Warwick, on background to this joint UK-US organised Conference and some of the main themes in Professor Mann's  Conference Keynote Lecture on the impact of abnormal pregnancy on the fetal circulation.  

BMS President Stuart Egginton with Giovanni Mann

Watch video of Prof Giovanni Mann

MicroCirc12 - delegate perspectives

A series of blogs from the MicroCirc2012 conference at Keble College Oxford, 4-6 July, co-organized by the British Microcirculation Society (BMS) and the US Microcirculatory Society.

Views expressed in these blogs are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BMS 

Here are the impressions of Martin Leahy, Professor of Applied Physics at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

'How wonderful to be back in Oxford after 15 years and to celebrate Independence Day with our American friends. I wonder if the founders of the Microcirculation Societies in the 50s and 60s (I see Terence Ryan and David Lewis wandering about Oxford – they look like they’ve been here before!) expected that the 2012 meeting would be dominated by basic cell or at least ex vivo studies of growth factors and cell signalling. 

Martin Leahy at Day 3 poster session

Of course we don’t have to care about the real world to do good science and good science does not have to have any immediate impact on, say, patient outcome. Nonetheless, the macro view which we might read in the history books seems to be all about in vivo imaging and quantification. Malpighi, with the help of a novel high NA lens was the first to see and describe the microcirculation. 

Closer to our own time, the microcirculation meetings and publications mentioning ‘microcirculation’ really took off with easy access to videomicroscopy facilitated by developments in TV video recording. Physics has delivered macrocirculation imaging which underpins much of modern cardiovascular interventional success. Recently, several 3D and 4D (time) have become available, including photoacoustics and cmOCT. 

There is a great line up of presenters and a good attendance of 250 from around the globe. If half the audience were working in vivo (ideally in humans), I think there would be even greater excitement and discussions which were regularly challenging to the point of discomfort. Rather than excluding half of the current audience perhaps the chairs could look to recruit a couple of hundred microcirculation enthusiasts outside the basic community. The funders will eventually want us to show clinical impact. Those who have the privilege of seeing Hunt’s ‘Light of the World’ in the College Chapel may ponder which community is inspired by the light of conscience and which by the light of salvation. 

Finally, I guess the question we physicists would ask the microcirculation community is ‘When will microcirculation imaging and quantification be routinely used in the clinic?’'