Dear Colleagues,

It is our great pleasure to announce that  NSFC/RGC Conference: Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Pathway, Role in Health and Disease  will be held on 7th-8th December 2017 in the Charles K. Kao Auditorium, Hong Kong Science Park. The conference is co-organized by the School of Life Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Institute of Vascular Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School (PKUSZ).

Please download  the First Announcement here.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain a major cause of mortality and morbidity world-wide and in Hong Kong. The CVD prevalence has been increasing due to an ageing population and an increasing level of obesity and diabetes. Calcium signaling plays critical roles in cellular function and is important for life. Calcium ions (Ca²⁺) are the most versatile second messengers , as many vital physiological processes within the body are controlled by intracellular free Ca²⁺. Ca²⁺ enters the cell through Ca²⁺ channels that may be voltage-operated, ligand-operated or mechanically operated. Ca²⁺ can also be released from intracellular compartments by second messengers, such as inositol trisphosphate (IP₃). Indeed most intracellular Ca²⁺ is stored in the endoplasmic reticulum and release of Ca²⁺ into the cytosol creates a Ca²⁺ signal, or Ca²⁺ “spark”, that can be recorded by using state-of-the-art Ca²⁺-imaging techniques.

This conference will bring together researchers and clinician scientists in the field of calcium signaling and cardiovascular health and disease from Mainland China and Hong Kong with the primary goal of enhancing our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of Ca²⁺ signaling in cardiovascular health and diseases. We hope to establish some new or longer-term research collaboration between Hong Kong and Mainland researchers.

We look forward to your participation at the conference.

Yours sincerely,

Jack Wong, PhD
School of Life Sciences, CUHK

Gary Tse, PhD
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, CUHK
Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences

Kunfu Ouyang, PhD

Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School

The conference was substantially supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China / Research Grant Council Joint Research Scheme sponsored by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. N_CUHK453/17).