Source: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Written by: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On December 6-7, 2016, the Guangzhou International Forum in Hypertension Research was successfully held on Guangzhou North Campus of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU). The meeting was hosted by Professor Tianxin Yang from Zhongshan School of Medicine of SYSU, co-hosted by Professor Fan Fan Hou from Southern Medical University. Experts from home and abroad in the field of hypertension research gathered and discussed some burning issues in the field. This is the third annual event after the first hypertension meeting held in 2014.

By all standards, this is a truly international hypertension forum. English was used as working language throughout the meeting from the opening speech to the closing address. 16 foreign speakers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Japan, and 15 domestic experts who are prestigious in the hypertension research field presented their studies.  

Photo of experts in Guangzhou International Forum in Hypertension Research
 

Among foreign speakers are Professor Jan-?ke Gustafsson, president of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and vice chair of the National Research Council; Professor Christopher Wilcox, former chair of American Heart Association Council on Hypertension; Professor Gregory Fink, chair of American Heart Association Council on Hypertension; Professor Thomas Coffman, dean of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore and associate editor of Journal of Clinical Investigation; Professor David Ellison, director of Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute at Oregon Health & Science University and associate editor of Journal of the American Society of Nephrology; Professor Moshe Levi, professor of medicine, Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, University of Colorado AMC; Professor Pedro Jose, professor of medicine at George Washington University; Professor Alex F. Chen, professor at Michigan State University and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Professor Michael Brands, professor in University of Mississippi Medical Center; Professor John Cijiang He, chief of Division of Nephrology at Mount Sinai Hospital; Professor Joey P. Granger, the Billy S. Guyton Distinguished Professor and director of the Cardiovascular-Renal Research Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS; Professor Boye L Jensen, professor of physiology at University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark; Professor S. Ananth Karumanchi, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; Professor Mohan Raizada, professor in University of Iowa Department of Physiology and Biophysics and University of Florida; Professor Akira Nishiyama, chairman and professor of pharmacology at Kagawa University Medical School, Kagawa, Japan; Professor Steve Crowley, associate professor of medicine at Duke Cancer Institute. Notably, three of them, Professor Pedro Jose, Professor Thomas Coffman, and Professor Christopher Wilcox, are recipients of the Novartis Award for Hypertension Research from Council for High Blood Pressure Research, the highest award in the hypertension research field.
 

Academician Fan Fan Hou speaking at the forum


Prof. Jan-?keGustafsson, president of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), speaking at the forum
 

Domestic speakers included Professor Fan Fan Hou, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of medicine at Southern Medical University; Professor Xueqing Yu, president of the Chinese Society of Nephrology; Professor Jiguang Wang, director of the Shanghai Institute of Hypertension and associate editor of Hypertension; Professor Zhiming Zhu and Professor Chunyu Zeng from the Third Military Medical University; Professor PingjinGao from Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Professor Minxin Guan from Zhejiang University, etc. Most of them are leaders in the hypertension field. It is noteworthy that the domestic speakers consist of 10 National Outstanding Young Investigators in the relevant areas.

The meeting started with a warm welcome speech by Professor Mengfeng Li, vice president of SYSU, whose touching words immediately warmed up the participants. Attended by the many globally renowned researchers, the forum was strategically organized to consist of 8 cohesive sessions covering the most urgent topics in hypertension research, including precision medicine, folic acids, gut-kidney communications, reactive oxygen species, microbiota, (pro)renin receptor, local renin-angiotensin system, endophilin, ion channels, sympathetic nervous system, irisin, salusin-β, and so on. The presentations and their subsequent heated discussions offered new insights into further experiments and opportunities for future collaborations.
 

Heated scientific discussions among domestic and foreign experts
 

So far, the feedback received from the meeting participants is overwhelming. For example, in a letter to Professor Tianxin Yang, Professor Thomas Coffman commented that “The scientific program was truly excellent and the talks were of highest standards. You should be so proud of the great success of the meeting”; Professor Christopher Wilcox said: “Thank you for inviting me to this terrific meeting. You were very well organized and made the meeting terrific fun. Everyone so enjoyed it all”; Professor Zhiming Zhu wrote: “Congratulations on the complete success of this meeting!”; Professor Jiaguo Zhou remarked: “Your meeting was highly successful and your successful experience is worth learning”; Professor Zhixin Shan also wrote: “This meeting was well organized and I learned a lot”.

Although hypertension is recognized as a major risk factor worldwide, hypertension research in China is still in the infant phase. China has 300 million hypertension patients, the largest population in the world. It is of high significance to advocate and promote hypertension research especially in China. To meet this goal, the establishment of the annual meeting of Guangzhou International Forum in Hypertension Research is timely and thus is highly important. It offers a unique platform to promote scientific communications and collaborations and also helps increase the impact of Sun Yat-sen University on hypertension and cardiovascular areas in the nation as well as in the world.