INTRODUCTION
The International Society of Hypertension (ISH) New Investigators Network (NIN) serves as a platform for interaction between students and upcoming researchers and to create opportunities for building relationships, as well as to gain experience and exposure within the ISH as they start their scientific careers. The ISH NIN includes Research Fellows and Emerging Leaders membership of the ISH and now covers 45 countries. To support the goals of the ISH NIN, the ISH New Investigators Committee (NIC) was established in 2013. The ISH NIC is an active group of young clinicians and researchers who are passionate about hypertension research and have a real drive to promote and support the career progression of their peers. In 2016, the ISH NIC was transformed when the committee changed its structure from working groups to a model in which every committee member leads a particular responsibility e.g. the monthly spotlight features, “What’s on my desk?”, Our Fellows Work, and social media among others. The ISH NIC currently consists of 10 members from seven countries who actively contribute to the primary aims of the ISH. The impact of the ISH NIC can be measured by (i) the growth in country representation from 28 (in 2015)1 to 45 countries in 2019 for ISH NIN members (i.e., ISH Research Fellow and Emerging Leader membership); (ii) our annual involvement in numerous international meetings and awards sponsored by the ISH NIC to encourage hypertension research among new investigators; and (iii) bridging the gap in accessibility to resources between low and high income countries, especially in collaboration with the ISH Mentorship and Training Committee (MTC).
As one of the most active committees within the ISH, the ISH NIC contributed to a number of events and activities during 2019 including May Measurement Month under the leadership of Neil Poulter (ISH Immediate Past-President; UK), collaborative efforts with the ISH Women in Hypertension Research Committee (WiHRC), participated in a number of scientific sessions and summer schools across the globe and also maintained an active online profile to promote ISH NIN members and their work. Here we highlight some of our achievements from 2019 and look forward to 2020 and beyond.
SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS
Argentine Society of Arterial Hypertension
The Sociedad Argentina de Hipertensión Arterial (SAHA) organized the XXVI Argentine Congress of Arterial Hypertension meeting that took place on April 11–13, 2019. The meeting was hosted in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina at the NH Gran Hotel Provincial, an iconic and historic neoclassic building designed by architect Alejandro Bustillo in 1937 and inaugurated in 1950. The meeting was organized by Irene Ennis (Organizing Committee President) and Alejandro Aiello (Scientific Committee President) and included 2049 delegates with more than 75 original research studies presented. Cesar Romero (USA) and Pablo Kempny (Argentina) attended the meeting as representatives of the ISH and the ISH NIC, respectively. The meeting included a research course for young investigators which was attended by junior researchers and clinicians interested in initiating research in hypertension. An oral competition included the five best original abstracts presented by young investigators and judged by Ernesto Schiffrin (ISH Past-President; Canada), Irene Ennis (Argentina) and James Walker (UK) (Figure 1).
Figure 1.
Argentine Society of Arterial Hypertension Young investigators oral competition. From left to right - Pablo Kempny, Irene Ennis, James Walker, Ernesto Schiffrin and Cesar Romero.
Awardees:
Maia Aisicovich (Argentina) was the winner for the best oral presentation with “Cardiac-leptin-TRH interaction in left ventricular hypertrophy of the obese mouse”
Marina Grand (Argentina) was the runner-up who presented “Non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring in children, adolescent and adults based on pulse contour analysis: comparative analysis with echocardiographic derived data and determination of percentile curves”
American Heart Association Hypertension Scientific Sessions
The American Heart Association (AHA) Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2019 was held on September 5–8, 2019, in New Orleans, USA. This annual meeting is a combined effort of the AHA’s Council on Hypertension and Council on the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease (KCVD) and is the preeminent hypertension-focused meeting in the United States. The meeting was well-attended by the international hypertension research community, with Rhian Touyz (ISH Past-President and ISH WiHRC member; UK) and Francine Marques (Chair ISH MTC; Australia) awarded the 2019 Excellence Award for Hypertension Research and the Harry Goldblatt New Investigator Award, respectively. The ISH NIC has a long-standing collaboration with the AHA’s Council on Hypertension Trainee Advocacy Committee (TAC) to facilitate the Hypertension Early Career Oral Award Session and the annual Trainee Mixer. The Hypertension Early Career Oral Award session features the top-ranked trainee-submitted abstracts and this year was chaired by Christian Delles (UK) and Francine Marques (Chair ISH MTC; Australia). The finalists for this coveted award were (Figure 2):
Figure 2.
Finalists for the AHA Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2019 Hypertension Early Career Oral Award. From left to right: Karen Griffin MD (2019 Chair for the Council for Hypertension), Franco J. Puleo BS, Farrah Amous MPH, Karen C. Clark BS, Michael Z. Grzeskowiak MD, Jin Wei PhD, Curt D. Sigmund (2019 Vice-chair for the Council for Hypertension). Photo credit ©AHA/2019
Karen C. Clark (USA) presenting “Gene editing yields a novel rat model of cardiometabolic disease”
Jin Wei (USA) presenting “High protein diet-induced glomerular hyperfiltration is dependent on NOS1a”
Franco J. Puleo (USA) presenting “Sex differences in the development of age-dependent hypertension and the salt sensitivity of blood pressure”
Michael Z. Grzeskowiak (USA) presenting “Racial differences in length of stay and hospital expenses in hypertension and pregnancy”
Farah Ammous (USA) presenting “Epigenome wide association study identifies DNA methylation sites associated with target organ damage in elderly African Americans”
Giacomo Rossitto (UK) presenting “High sodium intake induces a catabolic state via glomerular hyperfiltration and enhanced glomerulotubular balance in essential hypertension”
The winners of this year’s Hypertension Early Career Awards were: Karen C. Clark (basic science) and Giacomo Rossitto (clinical science). The awards were also supported by Data Sciences International (DSI), the British and Irish Society of Hypertension, Hypertension (AHA journal) and the KCVD.
The annual Trainee Mixer, jointly sponsored by the ISH NIC, DSI and the KCVD, aims to provide a relaxed environment for early career researchers to meet and discuss their work and also mingle with senior Faculty. This year’s attendees enjoyed spectacular views, great music and karaoke and the opportunity to establish new collaborations. Feedback from both early career researchers and more senior researchers was overwhelmingly positive for this event and it was a real highlight of this year’s meeting. The ISH NIC looks forward to their continued involvement in these highly successful events and would like to take this opportunity to thank all ISH members for their participation.
The 8th Canadian Hypertension Congress
The 8th Canadian Hypertension Congress (CHC) was held on September 26–28, 2019, in Edmonton, Canada. A significant component of the conference program was the Young Investigator Forum. As part of the Young Investigator Forum, the ISH WiHRC together with the ISH NIC, for the first time, organised mentoring meetings between junior and senior conference attendees. Junior congress attendees at all levels of education from Master student to late stage Postdoctoral Fellow were able to book 30-minute face-to-face meetings with senior mentors (Figure 3). The volunteers acting as mentors included ISH Executive members: Dylan Burger (Canada), Richard Wainford (USA) and Muscha Steckelings (Denmark) as well as Ryan Perry (Assistant Scientific Director, CIHR Institute for Circulatory and Respiratory Health), Joanna Preston (Associate Director, Technology, TEC Edmonton), Cassandra Kinch (Medical Advisor, Pfizer), Paul Jurasz (Associate Professor, University of Alberta) and Stephane Bourque (Assistant Professor, University of Alberta). The Young Investigator Forum Co-Chairs Kim Phan and Mandy Turner were pivotal in scheduling the meetings between juniors and seniors.
Figure 3.
Chloé Landry (left) and Muscha Steckelings (right) getting together for a mentoring meeting as a part of the Young Investigator Forum at the 8th Canadian Hypertension Congress in Edmonton, Canada.
Topics discussed during these 30-minute meetings were completely open and up to the juniors. As it turned out, the topics raised were indeed very diverse and included e.g. seeking advice on how to set up a CV, discussions on how to have a successful career in academia as a female researcher and considerations on strategies for finding a first faculty position after a Postdoctoral Fellowship. A major highlight of the Young Investigator Forum was the grant writing session which included a mock grant review panel where students had the opportunity to submit research proposals and receive feedback through a formal review process led by members of both Hypertension Canada and the ISH. Additional topics covered throughout the Young Investigator Forum included “the biggest challenges facing science”, “how to keep up with scientific literature” and “how to give an effective presentation”. The forum concluded with a keynote presentation from Michelle Rabello da Cunha (Brazil), a Brazilian PhD student at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, whose attendance at CHC 2019 was supported by the ISH Americas Regional Advisory Group.
Feedback from participants of the ISH-supported mentoring meetings was overwhelmingly positive. It was the impression of “the seniors” that the juniors, who had booked a meeting, appreciated the opportunity to discuss current challenges in their career with a senior advisor from outside their “home environment” and also simply to have an experienced and “neutral” person listening to them and being focused on their individual circumstances for the duration of the meeting. The ISH WiHRC and the ISH NIC are grateful to the organisers of CHC 2019 that they were open to the new format of ISH-supported mentoring meetings, and we hope that in the future, such meetings will be implemented at other conferences as well.
The 15th Asian-Pacific Congress of Hypertension
The High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia (HBPRCA) hosted the 15th Asian-Pacific Congress of Hypertension (APCH) that took place in Brisbane on November 24–27, 2019. The meeting was held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, adjacent to the iconic Southbank promenade and Brisbane River. The meeting was attended by 347 delegates from 29 countries with 165 original oral or poster presentations and organised by Michael Stowasser, Karen Moritz, Bradley Broughton, Louise Burrell, Kate Denton, Francine Marques, Anastasia Mihailidou, Trefor Morgan, Markus Schlaich, James Sharman and Martin Wolley who are all based in Australia. In attendance as representatives of the ISH were Alta Schutte (ISH President; South Africa), Ruan Kruger (Chair ISH NIC; South Africa), Richard Wainford (ISH Executive; USA), Fadi Charchar (ISH Vice-President; Australia), Francine Marques (Chair ISH MTC; Australia), Elena Velkoska (ISH NIC; Australia) and Markus Schlaich (ISH Executive; Australia). The meeting included four satellite symposia (Aldosterone and Hypertension, Role of the Sympathetic Nervous System in Hypertension and Target Organ Damage, Gut Microbiome and Hypertension, and Central Blood Pressure: What’s New?), a joint New Investigator Symposium between the HBPRCA and the ISH followed by a networking event sponsored by the ISH NIC, and a morning run/walk along Southbank and the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. The Asian-Pacific Society of Hypertension (APSH) provided a number of Young Investigator Fellowships for attendees of the meeting. Four awards for student and early career researcher presentations were also on offer from ISH NIC.
Awardees:
Quynh Nhu Dinh (Australia) was the winner of the ISH best Early Career Researcher oral presentation with “Hypertensive stimuli promote brain inflammation and cognitive impairment in a pressure-dependent manner”
Audrey Adji (Australia) was the winner of the ISH best Early Career Researcher poster presentation with “A disparate phenomenon of pulse wave reflection with sex in obese individuals”
Bradley Woods (Australia) was the winner of the ISH best student oral presentation with “Circular RNAs are upregulated in hypertensive kidneys”
Zeng Guo (Australia) was the winner of the ISH best student poster presentation with “The effect of ramipril on the aldosterone/renin ratio and aldosterone/angiotensin II ratio in patients with primary aldosteronism: A pilot study”
SUMMER SCHOOLS/TRAINING PROGRAMS
The 3rd Summer School of the APSH/ISH
The 3rd Summer School of the APSH in collaboration with the ISH was held on July 22–26 in Ayutthaya, Thailand, at the Krungsri River Hotel. The Summer School was organized by the APSH and the Thai Hypertension Society, supported by a grant from the ISH. There were 29 Scholars from 14 countries. The Faculty consisted of the Dean (Trefor Morgan, Australia) supported by the APSH, International Faculty members (Thomas Unger, The Netherlands; Markus Schlaich, Australia) supported by the ISH, the Chair of the ISH NIC (Ruan Kruger, South Africa) supported by the ISH and Regional Faculty members (Pankaj Handa, Singapore; Yuqing Zhang, China; Daisuke Nakano, Japan) supported by their nominating Societies. The Local Faculty from Thailand included Apichard Sukonthasarn, Nijasri C. Suwanwela, and Vuddhidej Ophascharoensuk and the local conveners and organizers were Pairoj Chattranukulchai and Sirisawat Wanthong.
A group photo (Figure 4) was taken to kick off the Summer School, after which each Summer School scholar presented their abstract within themes including hypertension epidemiology, prevention or treatment, blood pressure measurement or secondary hypertension. Scholars were also given the opportunity to present their own research findings, which included novel interventions for the treatment of hypertension and blood pressure measurement issues among others. The Faculty gave lectures on a variety of topics including the role of the sympathetic nervous system and renin angiotensin system in hypertension, and resistant hypertension and presented fascinating case studies, which were a highlight for many scholars. The Scholars and Faculty were also treated to an afternoon social activity exploring the historic sights of Ayutthaya. Highlights included the Arts of the Kingdom museum (Figure 5) and Wat Mahathat’s Buddha Head.
Figure 4.
The 3rd Summer School of the APSH/ISH Scholars and Faculty members in Ayutthaya, Thailand.
Figure 5.
The 3rd Summer School of the APSH/ISH Scholars and Faculty members on their way to the Arts of the Kingdom museum in Ayutthaya, Thailand.
The Nordic-Baltic Regional University Research Course
The Nordic-Baltic Regional University Research Course was held on September 19–21, 2019, in Gdansk, Poland. The course was organized by Krzysztof Narkiewicz (Poland) from the Medical University of Gdansk and Peter Nilsson (Sweden) from Lund University, with endorsement from the ISH European Regional Advisory Group, the European Society of Hypertension (ESH), the Polish Society of Hypertension and the Medical University of Gdansk. The focus of the course was hypertension and cardiovascular disease, with special attention to brain, cognition, stroke and sympathetic nervous system activation. The lectures covered a variety of topics including epidemiology, mechanisms, risk factors and novel technologies in diagnostics and management. Fifty young researchers and PhD students (Figure 6) participated during the course, presenting their research projects and getting feedback from opinion-leaders in the field. In addition, the course was a unique opportunity for networking. The ISH Faculty included Maciej Tomaszewski (ISH President-elect; UK), Muscha Steckelings (Chair ISH WiHRC; Denmark), Mattias Brunström (ISH NIC member; Sweden) who gave a lecture on differences between observational studies and randomized controlled trials and Lyudmila Korostovtseva (ISH NIC member; Russia) who presented her project on sleep apnea in stroke.
Figure 6.
The Nordic-Baltic Regional University Research Course Scholars and Faculty members in Gdansk, Poland
WEBSITE HIGHLIGHTS
Since 2011 the ISH has provided early career (PhD student, trainee (post-doctorate/fellow) or within 7 years of first faculty appointment) ISH members with an opportunity to display their personal and professional qualities for greater visibility by featuring them as an ISH New Investigator Spotlight. Each New Investigator Spotlight is selected based on the persons scientific achievements. In 2019, the ISH NIC was proud to feature 5 New Investigator Spotlights (2 females and 3 males) from across the globe on the ISH website.
In 2017 the ISH NIC launched “Our Fellows Work”, with the aim to increase the visibility of the scientific work and findings of new investigators and trainees globally. Since its inception, Our Fellows Work has highlighted 42 articles by ISH NIN members to help them develop collaborations and strengthen their scientific networks. In 2019, Our Fellows Work showcased recent articles from 7 Fellows (3 females and 4 males) that spanned basic, population and clinical sciences.
THE ISH NIC INITATIVES IN 2020 AND BEYOND
Over the past 6 years, the ISH NIC has worked hard to promote and support ISH NIN members. In 2020, the ISH NIC endeavours to prioritise women in leadership roles and to foster strong cooperative engagements between the NIC, MTC and WiHRC to support the development of our ISH NIN members. Development and planning for ISH NIC co-sponsored events at Scientific Sessions such as those at AHA Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2020 in New Orleans, USA (10–13 September 2020) in collaboration with the AHA TAC and the upcoming joint ESH-ISH 2020 conference in Glasgow, United Kingdom (29 May – 1 June 2020) in collaboration with the British and Irish Hypertension Society and ESH are well underway. The ISH NIC is here to promote and support the career progression of ISH NIN members and welcomes any comments or suggestions to better meet our goal.
We encourage participation and attendance to the upcoming joint ESH-ISH 2020 conference in Glasgow, United Kingdom (29 May – 1 June 2020) to witness the prospects of the ISH NIC become a reality.
Footnotes
Disclosures: All authors gave final approval of the submitted article. On behalf of my co-authors, I submit the enclosed manuscript for consideration by the Journal. It has not been published in this or a substantially similar form (in print or electronically, including on a web site), nor accepted for publication elsewhere, nor is it under consideration by another publication.
REFERENCES
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