Harvey Feigenbaum is widely recognized as the "Father of Echocardiography" for pioneering the most widely used cardiac imaging technique in the world. He has been a leading scientist in this field for decades. Dr. Feigenbaum joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Medicine where he serves as the director of non-invasive diagnostic cardiac laboratories.Dr. Feigenbaum received his medical degree from Indiana University and following an internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, he returned to the Indiana University Medical Center to complete his residency. During his career, he has received awards and from numerous professional organizations. In 2000, the "Feigenbaum Lecture" was inaugurated at the American Society of Echocardiography annual meeting. In 2004, he received the Primio Mantevergine Award as "Father of Modern Echocardiography" in Naples, Italy and also was the recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Mayo Clinic for the development of echocardiography.Dr. Feigenbaum is the editor of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography and also was made a Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association, which is the highest award the organization presents. He was the founder and past president of the American Society of Echocardiography.Additional contributions that Dr. Feigenbaum has made to the medical profession include training many early pioneers and the first cardiac sonographers, organizing the first and numerous other courses in echocardiography, and writing the first and leading textbook with multiple editions and translations.

Reusch made a fundamental observation that CREB, the cAMP Response Element Binding Protein, is a pivotal intermediate through which diabetes, hyperglycemia and oxidative stress exert their detrimental effect on cellular differentiation. Inappropriate regulation of CREB expression and phosphorylation leads to de-differentiation or death of many cells and target organs. She initially identified that insulin promoted CREB activation. This aspect of insulin action is critical for the insulin-induced differentiation of pre-adipocytes into mature adipocytes. Other studies defined a role of CREB in vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotypic modulation (maintenance of SMC contractile, highly differentiated phenotype). Hyperglycemia, oxidative stress, cytokines, aging, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance lead to a decreased vascular CREB content and CREB-dependent gene expression permitting a proliferative phenotype of SMC. Recently she has observed that intervention with calorie restriction, exercise or insulin sensitizers can restore CREB function in the heart and vasculature. These observations add insight to the mechanism of accelerated atherosclerosis in diabetes. Her group was the first to describe the role of CREB in neuronal regulation of the bcl-2 gene, an important target for neurotrophin-mediated cytoprotection. CREB prevents programmed cell death in fat cells, neurons and beta cells exposed to pro-apoptotic stimuli such as TNF-a, oxidant and cytokine injury. In addition, she has observed loss of CREB function in the nervous system of diabetic rodents and in the islet of the NOD mouse.
This body of work lead to the laboratory's thematic hypothesis: Diabetes leads to an inappropriate regulation of CREB, which contributes to diabetic complications by loss of differentiation, promotion of apoptosis and ineffective metabolic adaptation.

Ban-Hock Toh Graduated MBBS University of Singapore (1965), FRACP (1975), FRCPA (1975), PhD (1977) and DSc (1986) Monash University. Heads the Autoimmunity Laboratory, Centre for Inflammatory Diseases, Department of Medicine, Monash University Faculty of Medicine and the Diagnostic Immunology Laboratory of Australian Clinical Laboratories, Clayton, Victoria. He has held positions as Head, Department of Immunology, Monash University (1995-2005) and was Chief Examiner in Immunology for the FRCPA (1995-2000). He has published 272 peer-reviewed papers, and 21 book chapters. He is currently engaged in studies directed towards understanding the immunopathology of atherosclerosis, based upon his extensive experience in the immunopathology of autoimmune gastritis and pernicious anaemia, autoimmune hepatitis and the molecular biology of early endosomes.

Sergey Suchkov was born in the City of Astrakhan, Russia, in a family of dynasty medical doctors. In 1980, graduated from Astrakhan State Medical University and was awarded with MD. In 1985, Suchkov maintained his PhD as a PhD student of the I.M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy and Institute of Medical Enzymology. In 2001, Suchkov maintained his Doctor Degree at the National Institute of Immunology, Russia. From 1989 through 1995, Dr Suchkov was being a Head of the Lab of Clinical Immunology, Helmholtz Eye Research Institute in Moscow. From 1995 through 2004 - a Chair of the Dept for Clinical Immunology, Moscow Clinical Research Institute (MONIKI). In 1993-1996, Dr Suchkov was a Secretary-in-Chief of the Editorial Board, Biomedical Science, an international journal published jointly by the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.

Jose Antonio F. Ramires, MD, PhD has completed his PhD at the age of 28 years from University of Sao Paulo Medical School, Brasil and postdoctoral studies from the same University. He was the Scientific Director, Learn Director and General Director of the Instituto do Coracao-INCOR (Heart Institute) of the University of Sao Paulo. Actually, he is Head Professor of Cardiology of the Instituto do Coracao-INCOR and coordinator of medical graduate of the INCOR. Dr. Ramires was President of the Sao Paulo State Cardiology Society, Brazilian Society of Cardiology and Brazilian Heart Foundation (FUNCOR) and Vice-President of the InterAmerican Cardiology Society. During five years (2005-2010) was President of the Professors and Researchers Evaluation Committee of the University of Sao Paulo. He has published more than 495 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Sabrina Zeghichi Hamri, Associate professor at Bejaia University (Algeria), Ph.D in Physiology, Physiopathology and Pharmacology from Grenoble University (FRANCE) and MSc. in Food Quality Management from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Crete (Greece). Researcher at the department of cardiology (Grenoble University Hospital). My project was to study the effects of Omega-3 fatty acids on malignant ventricular arrhythmias in rats and in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Currently, I am working on phytochemicals and their antioxidant activities and their effects in prevention of chronic diseases; at the Laboratory of Biomathematics, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Scientometrics (Bejaia University