Venue: Yasumoto International Academic Park (YIA) Lecture Theatre 2, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Day One: 20^th March, 2026 (Fri)

Registration
Opening Session
09:00-09:20	Welcome Speech Philip Chiu Dean of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Opening Remarks David Foster Executive Director, Croucher Foundation Kathy Lui Co-chair; Croucher Scholar; Professor, Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Founding Member, The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences
09:20-09:30	Group Photo
Session 1 – Cutting-edge technologies Moderator: Thomas Braun
09:30-09:55	Bin Zhou (Co-chair; Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences) Topic: Tracing the origins of de novo coronary collateral formation in cardiac repair
09:55–10:20	Ralf H. Adams (Director, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine) Topic: Heterogeneity and functional specialization of blood vessels in bone
10:20-10:45	Qingbo Xu (Qiushi Professor and Chair, Department of Cardiology, Zhejiang University Medical School) Topic: Tracing CD34+ Cells in Cardiovascular Diseases
Session 2 – Vascular disease Moderators: Alex Lee, Faye Tsang
10:45-11:10	Stefanie Dimmeler (Professor Experimental Medicine and Director, Institute for Cardiovascular Regeneration, University of Frankfurt) Topic: Senescence and Vascular Crosstalk as Drivers and Therapeutic Targets of Cardiac Aging
11:10–11:35	Hellmut G. Augustin (Professor, Department of Vascular Biology, Heidelberg University) Topic: Angiocrine and pericrine signaling in the liver
11:35-12:00	Yu Huang (Head and Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Vascular Biology Jeanie Hu Professorship in Biomedical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong) Topic: Vaso-protective roles of uncoupling protein 2
12:00-12:25	Nicola Smart (Professor, Department of Physiology Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford) Topic: Delineating mechanisms of human coronary artery disease
12:30-13:45	Lunch
Session 3 – Cardiac disease Moderators: Bin Zhou, Ellen Poon
14:00-14:25	Thomas Braun (Director, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research) Topic: Regulation of heart development and disease by RNA-binding proteins
14:25-14:50	Yibin Wang (Director, Programme in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School) Topic: Post-transcriptional Regulation in Cardiac Development and Diseases: From RNA Splicing to Translation
14:50-15:15	Kathy Lui (Co-chair; Croucher Scholar; Professor, Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Founding Member, The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences) Topic: From Growth to Regeneration: A Journey with T cells in Cardiovascular Science
15:15-15:40	Randolph Wong (Professor and Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: Innovation in aortic diseases diagnosis and treatment
15:40–16:05	Yu Nie (Principal Investigator and PhD advisor, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Disease, Peking Union Medical College) Topic: Uncovering Regenerative Targets for Cardiac Repair
16:05–16:25	Refreshment
Session 4 - Cardiac disease Moderators: Yu Nie, Rio Sugimura
16:25–16:50	Sean M. Wu (Associate Director, Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University) Topic: Heart Development and Disease: Stem Cells, Engineered Tissues, and Artificial Intelligence
16:50–17:10	Hui Zhao (Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: Unveiling function of thyroid hormone and its receptor in cardiac regeneration using zebrafish models
17:10–17:35	Li Zhang (Professor, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) Topic: Nrf3 in the Coronary Heart Disease Continuum: A Novel Therapeutic Target
17:35–18:00	Kathryn Cheah (Emerita Chair of Biochemistry and Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Hong Kong) Topic: Extracellular matrix niche control of the cardiogenic transcriptional network
18:00–18:25	Xiao Yu Tian (Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: Cardiac endothelial cell dysfunction during cardiometabolic heart failure
18:30	Conference Dinner

Day Two: 21^st March, 2026 (Sat)

Session 5 – Young Investigator Awards Moderators: Thomas Braun, Yibin Wang
09:00–09:10	Jitao Liu (PhD Student, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: Pericyte, not endothelial, ACE2 is the principal driver of cardiac repair
09:10–09:20	Mingjun Zhang (Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences) Topic: A genetic system for specific targeting of pulmonary endothelial cells
09:20–09:30	Yangxian Li (PhD Student, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: The role of endothelial PPARδ phase separation in regulating stress granule dynamics during flow-induced endothelial activation and atherosclerosis
09:30–09:40	Yangfeng Hou (PhD Student, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: MRG15 promotes adult cardiomyocyte proliferation after MI through alternative RNA splicing
09:40–09:50	Zehao Yao (Postdoctoral Fellow, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Disease, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College) Topic: Seeing the heart through the nucleus: a nuclear-feature–based strategy for cardiomyocyte ploidy identification
Session 6 – Vascular disease across organs Moderators: Hellmut Augustin, Ronald Wang
10:00–10:25	Yevgeniya Nusinovich (Senior Editor, Science) Topic: Notes from an editor: inside publishing at Science
10:25-10:50	Jack Wai Ho Tang (Professor, School of Nursing and Health Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University) Topic: Age-Associated Tet2 Mutation Impairs Platelet Function
10:50–11:15	Wei Kong (Professor, Dean of the School of Basic Medical Science, Chair of the Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Peking University) Topic: Novel players in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
11:15-11:40	Owen Ko (Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: Towards anti-aging-based therapeutics for treating cerebrovascular disorders
11:40-12:05	Rio Sugimura (Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Hong Kong) Topic: Modelling tumour microenvironment with vascular organoids
12:05-12:30	Ronald Wang (Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Topic: Pharmacogenomics and pharmacokinetics of aspirin in preeclampsia prevention
12:30-12:40	Prize Presentation • Best Poster Awards • Young Investigator Awards
12:40-12:50	Concluding Remarks Bin Zhou Co-Chair; Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences Anderson Shum President, The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences
13:00-14:30	Lunch