Visitors have heart to heart at UCT

It didn't take long for the UK-SA Cardiovascular Research Workshop to become a misnomer.

Heartfelt: Delegates at the workshop.	Cardio colleagues: Dr Derek Hausenloy of the UCT Hatter Institute and Assoc Prof Sandrine Lecour, head of UCT's cardioprotection group at the Hatter Institute for Cardiology Research, organised the workshop.

At just the second such workshop, hosted in UCT's Chris Barnard Building by the South African Society for Cardiovascular Research (SASCAR) in August, the delegates had already spilt over the national boundaries organisers originally had in mind at the London gathering in 2010. Scholars and students from the rest of Europe joined the South Africans and British delegates who shared insights into their cardiovascular research over the two-day gathering.

So much so that the third meeting, scheduled for France in 2014, will be named the EU-SA Cardiovascular Research Workshop.

Over the workshop, the students presented their work, and could profit from plenary lectures from some of the leading international names in cardiovascular research.

There were also prizes. Kathleen Reyskens of Stellenbosch University won the South African prize for her work on the effects of antiretroviral treatment on the heart. In turn, Uma Mukherjee of the Hatter Institute at University College London (UCL) won the European prize for her work on a molecule called DJ-1 and its part in cardiovascular disease.

The workshops aim to promote fruitful cardiovascular research collaborations between the UK and South Africa under the auspices of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), UCT and SASCAR, an interest group of the South African Heart Association. The main organisers for this event were Assoc Prof Sandrine Lecour, head of UCT's cardioprotection group at the Hatter Institute for Cardiology Research, Dr Derek Hausenloy of the UCL Hatter Institute.