Outreach & Events – Caltech/UCLA Integrated NIH T32 Cardiovascular Engineering Training Program

(UPCOMING) 2023 National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s 2023 Training Grantees Meeting (TGM)

May 10, 2023

The organizers welcome your attendance at the 2023 National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s 2023 Training Grantees Meeting (TGM) in June. Please see below for more information for registration.

ARRIVING ON THE NIH CAMPUS | The meeting will take place in the William H. Natcher Conference Center (Building 45) on the NIH Campus located at 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland.

As you plan for your travel and arrival time, please remember it can take up to 45 minutes to pass through NIH Security at the Gateway Center. More information on the NIH Security processcan be found here.

Transportation details are available here on the meeting website.

FOOD & BEVERAGE | Lunch is only available via pre-order through Fresh Fork. If you have not placed your order, please click here to do so by June 9. All pre-ordered lunches will be delivered to Natcher and available outside the Auditorium when the program breaks for lunch.

ABSTRACTS | Please submit your abstract here no later than May 15, 2023. If your abstract is accepted for poster presentation, you will be notified by the meeting organizers. More information on the poster presentations can be found here. The poster size is 4 by 6 feet.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS | We have arranged reduced room rates at 3 Bethesda hotels, in keeping with government per diem requirements. Please make your hotel reservation by May 15 at one of the hotels listed here on the registration website.

2023 T32 Symposium

Apr 17, 2023

On April 17th, UCLA and CalTech put on the AHA iDIVERSE & NIH T32 Joint Symposium on “Translating Interdisciplinary Research to Ameliorate Cardiometabolic Disorders.” We heard from esteemed speakers who shared cutting-edge research on cardiovascular disease mechanisms and innovative engineering solutions for managing cardiometabolic risk factors. The poster presentations by the NIH iTEAM T32 scholars were inspiring, showcasing their novel research findings at the intersection of diversity, engineering, and medicine. The symposium provided a unique platform for networking, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among experts in the field. The Q&A sessions, discussions, and interactions were invaluable, fostering interdisciplinary connections and potential collaborations. Thank you to the American Heart Association (AHA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for their support and shoutout to our amazing team who worked hard to put on this event. We are grateful to all the attendees for their active participation and contribution to the success of the symposium.

AHA iDIVERSE & NIH T32 Joint Symposium

Translating Interdisciplinary Research to Ameliorate Cardiometabolic Disorders

2022 T32 Symposium

Sep 12, 2022

UCLA Bioengineering hosted the annual meeting for the UCLA/Caltech Integrated Cardiometabolic Medicine for Bioengineers (iCMB) training program on Monday September 12th in Mong Auditorium. The meeting featured invited speakers from engineering, medicine, and computer science, a poster session highlighting trainee research contributions, and a networking lunch for fostering collaborations.

The iCMB was funded in 2020 with the goal of providing a 2-year, structured curriculum for training post-doctoral engineers and biophysical or biomedical scientists to prepare them for leadership roles in academia and industry. The goal of this T32 program is to strengthen individualized training in 1) advanced sensing or 2) imaging coupled with machine learning usually in the context of addressing metabolic disease with an understanding of how to improve access to quality of care. The UCLA/Caltech iCMB program employs a co-mentorship model, and each post-doctoral scholar will have a primary mentor from cardiometabolic disease and a co-mentor from enabling technologies and/or industry.

The guest speakers covered pertinent topics to engineering and cardiovascular health including Precision Nutrition (Zhaoping Li, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine Director, Center for Human Nutrition and Obesity, Chief, Clinical Nutrition), the Amazon Science Hub for collaboration (Jens Palsberg, PhD, Professor of Computer Science, Director of UCLA-Amazon Science Hub on AI and humanism), the integration of Cryo-EM imaging and bioinformatics for understanding metabolism (Hong Zhou, PhD, Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics, Director, Electron Imaging Center for NanoMachines (EICN)), and the integration of wearables in clinical trials (Michael Ong, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Health Services Research). The schedule also featured outstanding researchers from UCLA Bioengineering including Dr. Jaimie Stewart (in-coming faculty in 2023, building programmable RNA structures), and Dr. Jun Chen (Assistant Professor, head of the Wearable Electronics Lab).

This year’s annual meeting featured 7 postdoctoral scholars with co-mentorships across multiple subject areas:

Elham Davoodi, MSc, PhD
Mentor: Wei Gao, PhD, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Caltech
Co-Mentor: Zhaoping Li, Division of Human Nutrition, Department of Medicine, UCLA
Ryan McGuan, PhD
Primary Mentor: Chang-Jin Kim, PhD, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Bioengineering, UCLA
Co-mentor: R. Michael van Dam, PhD, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
Behnam Sadri, PhD
Mentor: Wei Gao, PhD, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Caltech
Co-Mentor: Tzung Hsiai, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, UCLA
Adrian Arrieta, MS, PhD
Mentor: Thomas M. Vondriska, PhD, Department of Anesthesiology, Medicine and Physiology, UCLA
Ellen O’Connor, PhD
Primary Mentor: Srinivasa Reddy, PhD, Department of Medicine, UCLA
Co-Mentor: Jennifer Wilson, PhD, Department of Bioengineering, UCLA
Yujun Liu, PhD
Mentor: Z. Hong Zhou, PhD, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, UCLA
Co-Mentor: Tzung Hsiai, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, UCLA
Danial Shahraki, PhD
Mentor: Chiara Daraio, PhD, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering and Applied Physics, Caltech

2021 T32 Symposium

Sep 22, 2021

The first in-person meeting of the T32 program, which included all trainees and PIs. Held at UCLA

Virtual Field Trip

May 07, 2021

Hsiai lab members, along with Center X, met virtually with high school students to 1) give them a virtual tour of the lab and 2) host a Q&A session

Virtual Field Trip

Feb 18, 2021

Hsiai lab members, along with Center X, met virtually with students from Hamilton High School to 1)discuss COVID and the vaccine and 2)give students a virtual tour of the lab and host a Q&A session

UCLA Outreach Field Trip

Jan 27, 2019

40 students from Savanah High School came to UCLA to 1)meet with undergraduates about college life/classes/etc 2) visit labs and speak with PIs and 3) work with engineering undergrads on a seismic engineering activity that tested their earthquake-proof design skills