Travel Report: ISHR 2025
Nikola Srnic
The 2025 International Society for Heart Research World Congress was held in Nara, Japan from May 11th to 14th, 2025. This conference, held every three years, is one of the largest basic and translational research meetings in cardiovascular science with some sessions focused on more traditional themes in cardiovascular science, such as metabolism, calcium handling, and inflammation, and other sessions on emerging topics, such as autophagy, sex differences in cardiovascular disease, and epigenetic mechanisms in cardiovascular disease. These sessions included a range of international speakers at different career stages. Attending this conference allowed me to see how my work in metabolism intersects and fits in with other aspects of cardiovascular biology, and it challenged me to think how different techniques, topics, and approaches may relate to my own work.
Throughout the conference, there were many outstanding talks; in particular, Prof. Dale Abel from the University of California, Los Angeles, delivered the Keith Reimer Distinguished Award Lecture. In his talk, Prof. Abel discussed his lab’s work on cardiac glucose metabolism and how it relates to the pathogenesis of heart failure in the context of metabolic disease. It was particularly interesting to listen to his thoughts on how the disturbances in cardiac glucose metabolism may relate to the development of cellular dysfunction.
Another highlight of the conference was listening to the Peter Harris Distinguished Scientist Award Lecture delivered by Prof. Thomas Eschenhagen from the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf. Prof. Eschenhagen’s talk focused on the development of various methodologies to regenerate the heart following an ischemic insult. His group has developed and tested to use of a patch containing pluripotent stem cells to promote cardiac regeneration, developed and characterised engineered heart tissue, and has translated these developments into pre-clinical animal models. In addition to presenting his group’s work, the lecture focused on the approaches used by other groups, the strengths and weaknesses, and where the field may be heading. As an early career researcher, this historical overview and prediction of where the research may go was particularly useful to hear.
I also enjoyed several other talks in sessions which focused on cardiac metabolism and heart failure. In particular, I enjoyed Prof. Gabriele Schiattarella’s talk on liver-adipose tissue-heart cross talk in HFpEF, Prof. Melanie Paillard’s talk on sarcoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria communication in diabetic HFpEF, and Prof. Lisa Heather’s talk on metabolite-mediated PTM’s driving diabetic cardiomyopathy as these sessions were closely related to my work.
During the conference, I presented my work as a poster presentation. This poster session was highly interactive, enabling me to share my work with an international audience. I was able to establish connections with researchers “nearby” in Birmingham, and discussed my work with researchers from New Zealand, the USA, Germany, France, Japan, and Croatia. This has helped me to develop my professional network, and potentially establish new collaborations. Once the conference had finished, I stayed for an additional few days in Japan to explore the culture, food, and sights in Kyoto and Osaka before returning to the UK.
