Essay by
Luke Brewster, MD, PhD, MA
Greetings from your most junior member,
My introduction to the ISACB was at its 9th Biennial Meeting in Savannah, Georgia in March, 2004. I attended the meeting as a surgical resident in the first of a three year research fellowship, and I presented my first abstract at this meeting. The audience was filled with established investigators from a variety of scientific and medical fields along with young scientists training in equally diverse fields. Yet the presentations, comments, and discussions all fit well together and provided attendees with an excellent update of recent successes along with the current limitations to applying these successes to patients with cardiovascular disease.
The ISACB is truly a unique organization. I experienced this from the first meeting, but I did not know how true this was until I attended numerous other conferences. Now I understand that the special ambience and cooperativity among attendees found in this society sets it apart from other groups and conferences. Here scientists and physicians from around the world sit, talk, and enjoy themselves in a non-pretentious environment. The presentations themselves are very good and anchored by discussions about recent inroads into cardiovascular disease by leaders in these fields.
For young investigators like myself this society not only provides a forum for investigators of varying professions (surgeons of many types, pathologists, biomedical engineers) to interact and collaborate, but it also provides a forum to meet and discuss our ideas/achievements with international experts in cardiovascular biology and tissue engineering. I was honored to receive one of the Young Investigator Awards at the Awards Dinner in Savannah, and to present at both the Savannah and La Jolla Biennial meetings. I have had the opportunity to discuss my work with Drs. Clowes and Zilla, and it was at dinner with Dr. Zilla, that I decided to pursue a PhD during my research fellowship (recently completed). On an early morning airport shuttle, I was able to meet with Dr. Okano and discuss his work with temperature dependent matrices and cornea transplants; some of this work was subsequently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Over wine and cheese in La Jolla, California, I was able to meet Dr. Auger and thank him personally for his suggestion of a Quebec restaurant a year prior. Through this society I have been able to meet Drs. Hubbell and Zisch, both of whom have helped with expert advice and materials for my NRSA grant which funded the last two years of my fellowship in Dr. Greisler’s laboratory. In La Jolla, I was able to share coffee with Dr. Callow, the founding president of this society, and learn from his vast scientific, surgical, and global understanding of disease burden and social justice.
Cumulatively, the interaction of industry and academics, scientists and physician-scientists, young and established investigators, many of who are from the international community, set this society apart academically. Still it is the people that make this society great and will keep it strong. It is for the latter reason that I am proud to apply for junior membership, and I would like to thank the ISACB for the opportunities it has given me. I look forward to continuing my involvement with the society and hope that Dr. Greisler will welcome me back into his laboratory to generate an abstract or two for Bordeaux.
Luke Brewster, MD, PhD, MA
Loyola University Medical Center
Maywood, Il, 60153
lbrewst@lumc.edu
