...forwarded, for your information, Martin -------- Original Message -------- Subject: TODAY! Invitation to the inaugural lecture of Professor Ralph Knöll Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:16:24 +0000 From: Watson, Emma M <e.watson@imperial.ac.uk> To: Faculty of Medicine, NHLI <icsm-nhli-dl@imperial.ac.uk> The honour of your company is requested at an inaugural lecture: "Molecular mechanisms and future therapies in heart failure" Professor Ralph Knöll, Chair in Myocardial Genetics Date: Wednesday 21 March 2012 Time: 17.30 – 18.30 Venue: Lecture Theatre G16, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus (building no 33 on the map). Travel information for the South Kensington Campus can be found on the Imperial website. A pre-lecture tea will take place from 16.45 in the Foyer, Sir Alexander Fleming Building. RSVP: Emma Watson e.watson@imperial.ac.uk Cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure are the most common cause of death globally. Although major advances have been achieved during the last decades, our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms, necessary to develop new therapeutic strategies, remains incomplete. One such mechanism is mechanosensation, the fundamental process by which cells sense mechanical stimuli and convert them into biomechanical signals. Mechanosensation is also linked to mechanoptosis, a recently described type of cell death only found after an increase in biomechanical stress in striated muscles such as the heart. A diverse group of diseases has now been linked to mutations in the Z-disc proteins that form the segments separating the sarcomeres – the smallest functional units of striated muscle. These Z-discopathies can lead to perturbations in mechanosensation and apoptosis. Developing ways of combating cardiac myocyte cell death is key to finding ways to combat these lethal conditions. Professor Knöll was recruited to Imperial as a Professor and Chair in Myocardial Genetics in October 2009 from the Georg August University, Göttingen, Germany, where he was a Professor as well as Head of the Working Group in Cardiovascular Molecular Genetics since 2004. He was a Postgraduate Researcher and then Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, UC San Diego, from 1999 to 2004. He did his clinical training at the Charité in Berlin and his professional training at the Max-Planck-Institute of Physiological and Clinical Research, Department of Experimental Cardiology, and was educated at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Medical School, Frankfurt and Justus Liebig University Medical School, Giessen. Professor Knöll is a referee for a number of prominent journals, including Circulation, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, European Journal of Heart Failure, and Clinical Cardiology. He is a Member of the European Society of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the German Cardiac Society, and has won numerous awards including the Theodor Frerichs Award from the German Society for Internal Medicine and the Fritz Acker Award from the German Cardiac Society.