Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease
Monday, October 5, 2026

Join colleagues from Gladstone and Australia's Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) for a day of scientific exchange focused on advancing cardiovascular research.

You'll hear presentations showcasing innovative discoveries from investigators across both organizations, learn about exciting new approaches to understanding and treating cardiovascular disease, and connect with researchers at every career stage.

Whether you're looking to expand your scientific perspective, spark new ideas, or build collaborations with colleagues across institutions, this symposium offers an opportunity to engage with a community working toward a common goal: improving cardiovascular health.

This symposium is supported by the American Australian Association.

Program

8:30am Breakfast
9:00am Welcome and Opening Remarks
Enzo Porrello, PhD | MCRI
Christina Theodoris, MD, PhD | Gladstone Institutes
Session 1: Heart Development and Regeneration
9:10am Transcriptional Regulation of Cardiogenesis
Benoit Bruneau, PhD | Gladstone Institutes
9:30am Cellular Reprogramming as a Basis for Heart Disease
Deepak Srivastava, MD | President, Gladstone Institutes
9:50am Group and Speaker Photo
10:00am  Break
Session 2: Heart Disease
10:30am  Chromatin Control of Cardiac Inflammation, Disease, and Repair
Michael Alexanian, PhD | Gladstone Institutes
10:50am Dissecting the Sex Differences in the Genetic Architecture of Coronary Artery Disease
Catherine Tcheandjieu, DVM, PhD | Gladstone Institutes
11:10am Carma: Reporterless, Spatially-Resolved Contractility for 2D Cardiomyocytes
Mark Pocock, PhD | MCRI
Session 3: Enabling Technologies
11:30am An Automated Cell Signaling Platform for Next-Generation Drug Screening
Sean Humphrey, PhD | MCRI
11:50am Foundational AI Models to Enable Predictions in Network Biology
Christina Theodoris, MD, PhD | Gladstone Institutes
12:10pm Making the Measurements Routine: Cardiac Analysis Tooling at MCRI
Jerico Revote | MCRI
12:30pm Lunch
Session 4: Therapeutic Development
1:30pm Identifying Therapeutic Targets in Cardiomyopathy
David Elliott, PhD | MCRI
1:50pm Leveraging Human Genetic Variation to Therapeutically Target Hundreds of Genes With Dominant & Dispensable Disease Alleles
Bruce Conklin, MD | Gladstone Institutes
2:10pm AI-Driven Therapeutic Target Discovery for ALPK3-Related Cardiomyopathy
York Zhang, MS | Gladstone Institutes
Session 5: Cardiovascular Genetics
2:30pm Restoration of NRG-ERBB Signaling Rescues Cardiac Function in Genetically Diverse Forms of DCM
Enzo Porrello, PhD | MCRI
2:50pm A Functional Kinome Screen in iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes
Ellen Keen, PhD | MCRI
3:05pm 3D Chromatin Organisation as a Novel Mechanism for Understanding Transcription Factor Haploinsufficiency
Zoe Grant, PhD | Gladstone Institutes
Session 6: MCRI Biobank
3:20pm Melbourne Children's Heart Tissue Bank
Adam Piers, PhD | MCRI
Closing
3:35pm Closing Remarks
Enzo Porrello, PhD | MCRI
Christina Theodoris, MD, PhD | Gladstone Institutes


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) is Australia's largest child health research institute, ranked among the top three globally for research quality and impact. They are committed to transforming child and adolescent health by improving diagnosis, developing early interventions and pioneering new treatments. MCRI is located at The Royal Children’s Hospital and is at the heart of the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct.
 

Details

Dates
October 5, 2026
Time
8:30am-3:45pm PDT
Location
Mahley Auditorium
Audience
Gladstone
Contact(s)






Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At Gladstone, we are committed to providing events and professional development activities that resonate with our community’s diverse members. Our goal is to develop creative programming that encompasses a wide variety of ideas and perspectives to inspire, educate, and engage with everyone within our walls.

We want to effect positive change through our events and activities by providing a platform for discussions on important topics related to increasing diversity and inclusiveness in the sciences.