16th Annual Dawn Mark's Day - Alyssa wins award

Temple's Lewis Katz School of Medicine held its 16th Annual Dawn Mark's Day student research showcase. This years event featured 44 student poster exhibits and 10 oral presentations. Jonathan gave an oral presentation on MCUb regulation of mitochondrial calcium uptake and Alyssa presented on new mechanisms of myofibroblast differentiation and won 2nd place in the poster competition. Congratulations Alyssa!

Alyssa, right, with her award. 

Alyssa, second on right, with the other winners of the oral and poster presentations. 

Dr Barrie Ashby's Retirement Party

Dr Barrie Ashby, an esteemed member of the Temple teaching community, retired this spring. Happy Retirement Dr. Ashby! 

Temple Faculty and Staff celebrating Dr Barrie Ashby

Tim's Last Day - Onward to upenn

The lab went out to celebrate Tim's last day at Temple.  Tim accepted a position as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Joe Baur's lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Congrats and best of luck!

Devin, Tim and Neil celebrate Tim's defense of his thesis. 

Tim, Alyssa and Trevor take a selfie to commorate the happy moment. 

Tim Defends Thesis

Tim (PhD student) successfully defended his thesis "The Role of Mitchondrial Calcium Exchange in Cardiac Physiology and Disease". Afterwards the lab went out to celebrate his success. Special thanks to Dr. Tish Murphy for serving as the outside expert reader.

The lab celebrates Tim's successful defense of this thesis.

Neil, Alyssa, and Devin enjoying the festivities. 

Holiday Party 2016

The lab ended 2016 with the annual CTM-CVRC karaoke blowout. Tim was hard at work with his selfie stick.

Jonathan and Tim along with other Temple associates

Wally, John and Tim during karaoke. 

Tim and Emma during karaoke. 

Halloween 2016

Devin and Tim in their finest.

Devin as a can of coke 

Tim as a gorilla

Translational Research in Mitochondria, Aging and Disease (TRiMAD) - POOJA WINS AWARD

The lab attended the 6th annual TRiMAD conference held at CHOP. Pooja, Jonathan and Alyssa all presented. Jonathan presented on MCUb gating in calcium uptake, Alyssa presented on myofibroblast transdifferntiation in myocardial infarction. and Pooja presented her work on mitochondrial calcium efflux in Alzheimer’s disease. Pooja was awarded the Best Scientific Poster Award!

Pooja accepts the award for best scientific poster. 

4th Annual Temple Science Symposium - John, pooja and jonathan win awards

Temple hosted its 4th Annual Science Symposium with invited award lectures from Temple and Fox Chase Cancer Center. Dr Elrod presented his work on mitochondrial calcium signaling in heart disease and won the Early Research Investigator Award. Pooja (Postdoc), Jonathan (PhD stuent), and Alyssa (MD/PhD student) all presented as well. Pooja presented a poster on mitochondrial calcium efflux in Alzheimer’s disease, Alyssa presented her work on myofibroblast transdifferentation in myocardial infarction, and Jonathan presented his work on MCUB and calcium overload. Pooja won the postdoctoral award and Jonathan won the student award for their top scoring posters.

15th Annual Dawn Mark's Day - 2016

Tim, Alyssa, and Jonathan presented at Temple's 15th annual Dawn Mark's Day. Alyssa presented her work on myofibroblast transdifferentaiton in myocardial infarction and Jonathan presented on MCUB modulation of mitochondrial calcium uptake. 

Tim uses his selfie stick to take a pictures of the lab during the Dawn Marks Day poster presentation 

Experimental Biology Conference (EB) - San Diego - Tim & Alyssa Win Awards

John, Alyssa, Tim and Jonathan attended the Experimental Biology Conference in San Diego, California. Alyssa presented her work on mechanisms of myofibroblast differentiation; Jonathan presented his wok on MCUB regulation of mitochondrial calcium uptake; Tim presented his work on the role of NCLX in heart failure. Tim and Alyssa were both awarded the APS Cardiovascular Research Recognition Award for their top scoring abstracts. Congratulations Tim and Alyssa!

Alyssa and Tim with their APS Research Recognition Awards

Tim and Alyssa in front of Alyssa's poster 

Alyssa, Tim, Jonathan and other Temple scientists visit Ballast Point for a drink

Biophysical Society Conference - Alyssa & Pooja win awards

The lab attend the Biophysical Society Conference in New Orleans, Lousiana. Pooja presented her work on mitochondrial calcium efflux in AD and won the Committee for Professional Opportunities for Women (CPOW) Travel Award.  Alyssa presented her work on myofibroblast transdifferentiation in myocardial infarction and won the Biophysical Society Education Travel Award. Congratulations Pooja and Alyssa! 

Pooja and Alyssa at dinner after the conference. 

Café Du Monde in New Orleans. 

Holiday Party 2015

Temple associates at the Holiday Party. 

The Center for Translational Medicine ended 2015 with our annual holiday party co-hosted with the Cardiovascular Research Center. As usual, Dr. Koch's karaoke performance was the hit of the night! 

Scientific Sessions 2015

The Lab attended Scientific Sessions in Orlando and had a great time.  The highlight was Federica Accornero (former Molkentin trainee) winning the Katz Basic Science Research Prize.  By chance, three former Lefer trainees were all featured in the same session 'Cardiac Cell Death - Prevention and Recovery'.

Fede after winning the Katz.

Calvert, Jones, and Elrod

NCX Meeting in Jerusalem and Visit to Technion in Haifa

I was lucky to travel to Israel to visit my good friend Izhak Kehat in Haifa and give a talk at Technion.  The highlight of the trip was the personal tour by Izhak to various religious landmarks in the North of Israel.  From there it was onto Jerusalem for the 7th International Conference on Sodium Calcium Exchange thanks to a lecture invite from our friend and collaborator, Israel Sekler. Beyond the great science presented at this meeting, I had the intense experience of spending significant time touring Jerusalem. 

View from the Kehat Lab - not sure how you get any work done with this out your window.....

Izhak at the Jordan River baptismal site

Southern Wall of Temple Mount

Looking out from the Old City

AHA BCVS 2015 - Tim wins award

New Orleans, LA - Tim Luongo (PhD candidate) won the New Investigator Travel Award and was the top scoring abstract out of over 400 submitted for his work titled: "Genetic Deletion of Slc8b1, the mitochondrial sodium/calcium exchanger, causes sudden death and overexpression protects against MI and pressure-overload heart failure." John gave a talk in a session featuring mitochondrial biology in cardiovascular disease.

Tim Luongo (3rd from right, top row) after receiving his award. 

Steve Houser named AHA President

Click to read about Dr. Houser's achievement.

Our own Dr. Steve Houser was named President of the American Heart Association.  Congrats Steve!

Tim wins 1st place at Temple/FCCC Research Symposium

Tim Luongo, PhD student in the lab, won 1st place poster in the Temple/Fox Chase Research Symposium, which features work by all the graduate students.  Congrats Tim, way to represent!

4th Annual WHBA Summer School

Had an excellent time interacting with some of the top 'Greek' scientists from around the world. This school, founded by my colleague, Dr. Costas Drosatos, is truly an amazing event.  I had the privilege of giving a couple lectures and interacting with numerous trainees from around the world.  I made some life long friends on this trip and also had the privilege of spending some time with the Godfather of Molecular Cloning, Tom Maniatis. AND it also happens to take place in Mani, Greece.......

Tim Luongo Presents at the AHA Scientific Sessions

Dr. Elrod and Tim Luongo traveled to the AHA Scientific Sessions meeting in Chicago.  Tim presented a poster entitled, "Cardiomyocyte Overexpression of the Mitochondrial Sodium/Calcium Exchanger (mitoNCX) Increases Matrix Calcium Efflux and Preserves Cardiac Function in Mouse Models of Heart Failure."  Tim got a lot of great feedback and had a great time.

Luongo et al. AHA Scientific Sessions 2014

Hannover Medical School Lecture

Dr. Elrod had the good fortune while in Germany of traveling to Hannover Medical School to meet an old friend and colleague from the Molkentin Lab, Prof. Dr. Jörg Heineke.  While in Hannover, John gave a lecture as part of the Rebirth Cluster of Excellence Seminar Series.  Dr. Elrod met with the outstanding Cardiology research group including:Director and Prof. Bauersachs, Prof. Wollert, Prof. Hilfiker-Klein, and Prof. Thomas Thum.