at work I am interested in understanding how to make hearts stronger. Otherwise I like to travel, laugh, and drink tea (ideally outdoor). Recently I discovered the wonderful world of Linux and command line utilities, so I would eventually share some of that here too. I like to think we all carry the same invaluable gem of kindness inside; wherever we come from. Quite curious, I love to climb to the next pass to see what is on the other side. The site is just being started, so there is not much content here for now, but I am adding something new at least once a week.
From Brno to Picos de Europa
Our journey starts at 1AM to catch a train to Vienna airport. Getting up is not pleasant, but it will give us more time in Spain. Our goal - Lagos de Covadonga, two lakes up in the mountains of Picos de Europa, are 250 km west from Bilbao; we better get a car at the Bilbao airport to get there the same day.
As we drive along the coast on the highway, we decide to head inland already at Unquerra to see the canyon of Rio Cares....
Basecamp beyond Vegarredonda
We wake up into a clean sky kind of day. After a relaxed breakfast our walk to refugio Vegarredonda, the entrace to the heart of the massive, can start.
First, we cross a bridge over a small river, which stops in several small ponds formed in a solid rock. With the clear water and curvy beech and oak trees all around it really invites to have a dip. As we learn later, it actually WAS a favourite bathing spot for Marquess Pedro Pidal, who popularized Picos de Europa as a treasure of nature....
Not a real restday
We get up around 8am. Air is chilly, but sun is out to warm everything up soon. To make coffee and tea we get out of a tent on our mats. As it gets warmer we roll off mats on grass to stretch. Pretty soon stretching develops into proper yoga session. Later on we move on to discuss science, biology, and tissue homeostasis in particular. Because it was such a long walk yesterday we decide to do kind of a restday....
The New Cardiobiology 2024: Day one notes
Conference notes on the first day of the The New Cardiobiology 2024 organized in Heidelberg 19-22.2. Despite being the first edition of the meeting was super organized and packed with good talks.
Keynote 1: Christine Mummery The efficiency of current pharmacological treatments is not very high. In fact, for 10 top selling drugs in US, for one patient which benefited from the treatment there are 3 to 24 patients who do not improve....
The New Cardiobiology 2024: Day three notes
Notes on the last day of the conference. For me the highlight was the Dylan Burnette’s talk on sarcomere assembly, something I can directly relate to. Too much good stuff.
Giulia Savore The Melusin cardioprotective chaperone tunes lipid metabolism to promote cardiac resilience to stress
University of Torino, Italy
Melusin one interacts with Integrin-beta one and also with mitochondria. It stimulates compensatory hypertrophy and protects from oxidative stress.
Dylan T. Burnette Regulation of ventricular contractility driven atrial ballooning by the alpha actinin family member ACTN4...
The New Cardiobiology 2024: Travel Award Poster
For this conference I got lucky and earned the Travel Award for my poster Mechanosensor YAP1 drives myofibril development and maturation in human cardiomyocytes.
In case you are interested in learning about the work (Introduction, Conclusions) and about our team, read on. In case you want to see the poster contact me (vladimir.vinarsky (at) fnusa.cz) or have a look at the preprint of the work at bioRxiv. Image credit: Zuzana Garlikova...
