Dr. Jun Ren, MD, PhD, FAHA, is a Professor and Associate Director in University of Wyoming Biomedical PhD Graduate Program. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Cardiology in the Department of Cardiology, Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University. He is a member of American Heart Association and Diabetes Association National Center Study Sections. Dr. Ren specializes in the molecular cardiology with the goal that is to develop a strategy to prevent cardiovascular and a better regimen of treating these disorders. Serving as PI on several federal or national grants, he has completed enormous researches arming him with experience in cardiac function and structure assessment. In addition, he successfully administered the projects (e.g. staffing, research protections, budget), supervised students, and collaborated with other researchers. He has published over 500 articles with a main research interests in Cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. James R. Sowers, MD, is Professor of Medicine, Physiology/Pharmacology and Director of the Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Division at the University Of Missouri, School Of Medicine. In addition, he is the Director of the Thomas and Joan Burns Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research Center and holds the Thomas W. and Joan F. Burns Missouri Chair in Diabetology. Dr. Sowers serves as a reviewer on several study sections for the National Institutes of Health and for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is the editor of Cardiorenal Medicine, Associate Editor of Diabetes and on editorial boards of Hypertension, Endocrinology, and Metabolism. In the last year Dr. Sowers has published more than 25 peer-reviewed papers.Dr. Sowers achieved the Irvin Page Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Heart Association in 2012. He serves as a PI on one NIH funded grant and a VA Merit grant, and is a Co-Investigator on several NIH grants with colleagues at the University of Missouri, as well as other research colleagues at academic institutions around the country. Dr. Sowers has been examining the cellular mechanisms of insulin action in cardiovascular, renal and skeletal muscle tissue for three decades, focusing primarily on in vitro and in vivo/ex-vivo studies of animal models. Recently his research has been directed to the role of over-nutrition/angiotensin II, aldosterone, estrogen, and immune function on T regulatory cells and in site-specific serine phosphorylation of insulin sensitivity and associated cardiovascular functional abnormalities. As part this continuing cardiovascular renal diabetes research program, his program plans to pursue the role of angiotensin II, aldosterone and sex differences in metabolic cardiovascular insulin resistance in mice subjected to a “Westernized diet. Yingmei Zhang, MD, PhD, FACC, is a Professor and Attending Cardiologist in the Department of Cardiology, Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University. She also serves as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the College of Health Science at the University of Wyoming. She is a Yangtze River scholar Professor (Youth Scholar Program) and a winner of National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars. Prof. Zhang is also a member of Basic Research Group in the Chinese medical association cardiovascular branch. She received her Master’s and doctoral degrees from the Fourth Military Medical University and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Wyoming. She has over 60 publications in the area of pathogenesis and therapeutics of myocardial dysfunction focusing on the regulation of mitochondrial function and autophagy. Her research has been supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China, National Institute of Health (NIH) and American Diabetes Association (ADA). She serves as an editor or on editorial board for several scientific journals. Her scientific contributions encompass (1) revealing mechanism(s) behind myocardial mitochondrial injury under ER stress; (2) depicting the beneficial role for endogenous myocardial proteins including mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-1) under metabolic syndrome.
