Iffath Ghouri & Simon Bamforth
Newcastle University, UK

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.99.12

The 23^rd Northern Cardiovascular Research Group (NCRG) meeting was held on a beautiful sunny day at the Copthorne Hotel on Newcastle’s iconic Quayside, the first time that the meeting had been held in the city. The NCRG meeting showcases the high quality cardiovascular research that takes place in the north of the UK, and around 120 delegates attended from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to participate in this one-day gathering. The Physiological Society’s Cardiac & Respiratory Physiology and Vascular & Smooth Muscle Physiology Themes were well-represented at the meeting.

Traditionally, the relatively small size of the NCRG meeting has provided a great opportunity for students and early career researchers to present their work in a supportive environment. This year was no different, with the majority of talks and posters being presented by PhD students and post-docs. However, unlike previous meetings where the focus has been mainly on excitation-contraction coupling aspects of cardiovascular research, the scope of this year’s meeting was broadened to also encompass genetic and developmental aspects of cardiac and vascular tissue. The result was an eclectic mix of topics up for discussion, including cardiovascular adaptation to exercise, angiogenesis, in silico modelling, cardiac proteomics and ischaemic-reperfusion injury. Indeed, the important role of physiology as an integrative science was evident throughout the day. Although the topics were varied, many people commented that it was great to be exposed to research just outside their field, without it being pitched at a level beyond their understanding.

In keeping with the northern geography of the meeting, The Cairn Research Keynote Lecture was delivered by Dr Morten Høydal from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. His talk, entitled ‘Can exercise training teach us how to treat cardiac disease? From patients to cells and back’, discussed his group’s experimental approach of using animal models to understand the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of cardiac disease, and the improvements that can be made with exercise training. Knowledge from this is being developed to improve the quality of life of cardiac patients, and this was a great example of how physiology research can lead on to clinical therapeutic strategy.

Prizes were on offer for the best oral presentation and best poster. Michael Boylan from the University of Manchester won the prize for best talk for his eloquent description of how a point mutation in the Prpf8 gene leads to abnormal heart formation and defective left-right axis establishment. The prize for best poster – a pair of binoculars kindly donated by Zeiss – was won by Charlotte Smith, also from the University of Manchester. Her poster described postnatal T-Tubule development in ovine cardiac muscle. Congratulations to both!

The day would not have been as successful without the participation of all the delegates, who made the effort to attend from the Universities of Dundee, Glasgow, Manchester, Salford, Leeds, Liverpool, Hull, Queens University Belfast (and of course, Newcastle). The meeting provided an excellent forum for discussion, which was carried on afterwards at the conference meal in Sachins Punjabi Restaurant. We would like to extend our appreciation and thanks to our supporters and sponsors – The British Heart Foundation, Newcastle University, Badrilla, Cairn Research, Clyde Biosciences, IonOptix, Life Technologies, Olympus, Radnoti and World Precision Instruments. Photos of the event can be found at our Twitter page @NCRG2015.