Konda Babu Kurakula received NRS Travel Grant
Report International Vascular Biology Meeting 2016
Thanks to the NRS young investigators travel grant, I was able to visit the International Vascular Biology Meeting (IVBM) in Boston, USA from 30th October to 3rd November in 2016. In this meeting, I gave an oral presentation on my current work on how nuclear receptor Nur77 and its activation decreases experimental Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). I received some valuable suggestions and remarks to improve my current research.
Attending the IVBM 2016 has been of great value to my personal development and attributed to the progression of my current research projects. This meeting had four major themes including cells and vascular beds, cellular processes, emerging topics, and diseases. This interdisciplinary program helped me to learn the molecular mechanisms behind interplay between endothelial and smooth muscle cells in distinct vascular and respiratory diseases such as asthma and PAH. This conference gave me insights into the recent progresses in the field of vascular biology and PAH. Also the conference offered great network events to meet fellow researchers and inspiring top professors in the fields of vascular biology and PAH. I learned a lot from their current views on PAH, mainly on vascular cells and BMP signalling. I also had a chance to discuss my ongoing projects and gained some new insights and experience which will improve the quality of my research.
Excellent talks by Prof. Kurt Stenmark and Prof. Evangelos Michelakis inspired me to focus more on the fibroblasts and metabolism aspects in the PAH. In the emerging topics session, I got to know new technologies available that can be implemented to advance my research. During the interactive poster sessions for three days, I also meet fellow researchers in PAH and vascular biology fields to learn from their studies. I have successfully initiated a potential collaboration with a PAH research group in Graz, Austria to share our expertise to advance our PAH research projects. Furthermore, I also got a chance to meet one of the top professors Dr. Klaus Ley in a “Meet the Professor” session. He shared his research experiences and advised on the career and science-related issues.
I am very thankful for the opportunity the NRS gave me to visit this conference. These new insights in the field of vascular biology and PAH provided me with more ideas to advance my research. Therefore, I am very thankful to the NRS young investigators committee for rewarding this travel grant and given me the opportunity to attend this great meeting.
Konda Babu Kurakula, Molecular Cell Biology, LUMC
