On October 6th, from 16:00 – 17:15, our keynote speaker will be Prof. Dr. Daniel Beard of the University of Michigan Medical School in the USA. He will be joined by Dr. Shauna O’Donovan of Eindhoven University of Technology.
Prof. Dr. Daniel Beard (University of Michigan Medical School)
“Myocardial Metabolic Energy Supply”
Dan Beard is the Carl J. Wiggers Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology and the Associate Director of the graduate program in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. He earned an MS in Applied Mathematics and PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Washington. After completing his PhD, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Courant Institute of New York University, and as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellow. Before joining the University of Michigan, he was Professor of Physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Research in the Beard laboratory uses a combination of experimental and systems modeling approaches to understanding the operation of physiological systems in health and disease.
Dr. Beard’s research interests focus on cardiac energy metabolism, oxidative metabolism and energetics in skeletal muscle, regulation of coronary blood flow, and the etiology and sequelae of hypertension. Research in Dr. Beard’s laboratory uses systems engineering approaches to understanding the operation of physiological systems in health and disease. His research group has determined how mitochondrial ATP synthesis in the heart is physiologically controlled, and how this feedback mechanism breaks down in heart failure. Current projects use multi-scale models to simulate the integrated operation of metabolic pathways (e.g., oxidative ATP synthesis in the heart), cellular functions (e.g., cellular calcium handling and actin/myosin cross-bridge dynamics), whole-organ function (e.g., mechanics of cardiac pumping), and whole-body body cardiopulmonary function.
Dr. Shauna O’Donovan (Eindhoven University of Technology)
“The Mixed Meal Model; quantifying metabolic resilience in overweight and obesity”
Shauna O’Donovan received her PhD from Maastricht University in 2020 for her work on the quantification of tissues specific insulin resistance from challenge test data. She then moved to the Division of Human Nutrition and Health in Wageningen University where she developed a personalisable computational model of metabolic resilience. Shauna has now joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering in Eindhoven University of Technology as an assistant professor where she continues her work developing computational approaches to aid precision nutrition.