On March 5, 2025, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) received a significant breakthrough in pediatric research with an $11.7 million award from Genome Canada. As part of the Canadian Precision Health Initiative, a total of $81 million in...
Heart Failure Symposium Agenda
9th Annual Heart Failure Symposium
Tuesday, October 1, 7:30am – 6:00pm
7:30 – 8:30 AM Registration & Breakfast
8:30 – 8:45 AM Opening Remarks & Land Acknowledgement
8:45 – 9:45 AM Session I: What's New in Cardiomyopathy?
KEYNOTE: Dilated and Restrictive Cardiomyopathy Models and Therapeutic Targets
Mark Mercola, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute
Yield on re-evaluation of genetic variants in pediatric cardiomyopathy
Takanori Suzuki, The Hospital for Sick Children
Unraveling pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy, a new model for its rapid progression toward Heart Failure
Paul Delgado-Olguin, The Hospital for Sick Children
Identification and targeting of ABHD18 as a strategy to alleviate TAZ mutant phenotypes for Barth Syndrome
Sanna Masud, The Hospital for Sick Children
9:45 – 10:00 AM Flash Basic Science
10:00 – 10:20 AM Break
10:20 – 11:05 AM Concurrent Session II A: Diabetes, Inflammation, and Heart Failure
Improving cardiac microvascular function in diabetes-induced Heart Failure: is this how empaglifozin works?
Cori Lau, University Health Network
How a metabolic sensor regulates inflammation and adverse remodeling in Heart Failure: lessons from sAC knockout mice
Robert Lao, University Health Network
Improving cellular metabolism through healthier mitochondria: secrets in a secretome
Fatameh Mirshafei, The Hospital for Sick Children
10:20 – 11:05 AM Concurrent Session II B: Innovating Advances In Healthcare
The ecosystem of innovation
Paul Santerre, University of Toronto
Implementation of a sudden cardiac death risk prediction tool in clinical practice through electronic health records
Tanya Papaz, The Hospital for Sick Children
Safe passage: facilitating off-boarding from a digital therapeutic for Heart Failure
Anne Simard, University Health Network
Comparison of long-read versus short-read genome sequencing for congenital heart disease
Robert Lesurf, The Hospital for Sick Children
Wearable sensor for continuous blood flow measurement via multi-wavelength photoplethysmography (MWPPG)
Tenzin Yangzom, University of Toronto
11:05 – 11:15 AM Mini-Break
11:15 – 12:15 PM Concurrent Workshop IA: Recovering From Critical Care: “A Thousand Miles Starts With A Single Step” [Lao Tzu] Facilitator – Adriana Luk & Mena Gerwarges
Talks:
- Top 10 tips for recovered cardiac critical care patients – Lee Harel Sterling
- Cardiac rehabilitation – Fernando Rivera Theurel
- The lived experience of a critical care patient
11:15 – 12:15 PM Concurrent Workshop IB: Making My Work Relevant To Heart Failure. Facilitator – Craig Simmons & Slava Epelman
Deleting tissue B-cell dynamics prevents angiotensin-II induced hypertension in mice
Jasmeen Monga, University of Toronto
Atherosclerotic plaque macrophages drive abdominal aortic aneurysm formation
Aniqa Khan, University Health Network
Investigating how the tumour microenvironment predisposes the cardiovascular system to cancer-therapy induced cardiotoxicity
Priya Mistry, University Health Network
Early detection of polyneuropathy among patients with hereditary transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopath
Priya Arivalagan, University Health Network
Evaluating the impact of extended warm ischemic time using the ex-vivo heart perfusion in juvenile porcine models of circulatory death
Mimi Deng, The Hospital for Sick Children
Sympathetic response to exercise predicts exercise capacity of patients with heart failure across the left ventricular ejection fraction spectrum
Mark Badrov, University Health Network
12:15 – 1:15 PM Lunch
1:15 – 2:30 PM Poster Session
2:30 – 3:40 PM Session III: Advancing Healthcare Through Technology
KEYNOTE: What Have We Learned from Cardiac Proteomics?
Jennifer Van Eyk, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
MEDBind: Foundational multimodal AI for X-ray, ECG, and clinic notes
Chris McIntosh, University Health Network
Predictive models aid physician prognostication in patients with HFpEF
Carolina Alba, University Health Network
Development of stem cell-derived microfluidic models of the cerebral vasculature in Alzheimer’s disease
Lily Takeuchi, University of Toronto
Phosphoproteomic analysis of the cardiomyocyte intercalated disc in human heart failure
Kirsten Lo, University of Toronto
3:40 – 4:35 PM Session IV: Are Clinical Trials Required To Change Practice?
KEYNOTE: The Future of Heart Failure Clinical Trials in Canada
Justin Ezekowitz, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute
Findings from a randomized controlled trial of remote patient management after an incidence of acute heart failure decompensation (Medly-AID)
Emily Seto, University of Toronto
Long-term outcomes and patterns of follow-up after cardiogenic shock: insights from an advanced heart failure referral registry
Rana Hassan, University Health Network
4:35 – 4:55 PM Awards & Closing Remarks
4:55 – 6:00 PM Social Networking Reception
Margaret (Hai-Ling) Cheng, PhD
Prof. Cheng is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Trained as an electrical engineer, she worked in industry on synthetic aperture radar surveillance before completing her PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto and spending the next decade at SickKids as an MRI physicist. She joined the university in 2014, where she expanded her suite of quantitative physiological MRI capabilities to target cardiovascular disease. Her current research is focused on real-time MRI, chemistry for molecular imaging, and early diagnostics for heart failure.
Matthias Friedrich, MD, FESC, FACC
Dr. Matthias G. Friedrich earned his MD at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen/Nuernberg, Germany. He completed his training as an internist and cardiologist at the Charité University Medicine Center, Humboldt University in Berlin. He is currently a full professor at the Departments of Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology and acts as Chief of Cardiovascular Imaging and Scientific Director of the Courtois Cardiovascular Signature Program at the McGill University Health Centre. He also has an appointment with the Department of Medicine at Heidelberg University in Germany. He has focused the research activities of his team of 20+ researchers on cardiac MRI of myocardial injury, including acute ischemic and inflammatory conditions.
Milica Radisic, PhD
Dr. Milica Radisic is a Professor at the University of Toronto, Tier I Canada Research Chair and a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute. She is also the Associate Editor for ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, the Director of the NSERC CREATE Training Program in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering and Entrepreneurship and a co-Founder and co-Director of CRAFT. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada-Academy of Science, Canadian Academy of Engineering, AIMBE and TERMIS. The long term objective of her research is to enable cardiovascular regeneration through tissue engineering and development of new biomaterials. Her research findings were presented in over 260 publications with h-index of 68 and over 18,500 citations. She is a co-founder of two companies TARA Biosystems, that uses human engineered heart tissues in drug development and safety testing, and Quthero that advances regenerative hydrogels.
Seema Mital, MD, FACC, FAHA, FRCPC
Scientific Lead, Cardiac Precision Medicine Program
Dr. Seema Mital is a Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiologist and Head of Cardiovascular Research at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. She is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute. She is also the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada / Robert M Freedom Chair of Cardiovascular Science, and Scientific Lead of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. Mital has a strong translational research program focused on genomics, pharmacogenomics and stem cell applications to model childhood heart disease and discover new therapies. She has extensive experience in the genetics/genomics of congenital heart disease and heart failure, personalized medicine and clinical trials. She established the SickKids Heart Centre Biobank, a multi-centre biorepository of children and adults with childhood onset heart disease for genomics research, one of the largest international repositories of its kind. Mital is the Principal Investigator of the CIHR-funded INSERT-HCM multi-centre project aimed at implementing digital health technology, the NIH-funded Pediatric Heart Network for clinical trials, and leads the international ERAPerMed funded PROCEED network for Personalized Genomics in congenital heart disease.