Presenter: Kathryn L. Howe MD PhD RPVI FRCSC

Biography: Kathryn went to medical school at the University of Toronto and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Sick Kids, publishing in several fields during this time, including infection and immunity in HIV, ethics and sustainability in global surgery, and ischemia-reperfusion. As part of her Vascular Surgery residency (McMaster), Kathryn completed a 3-month clinical and research fellowship at Stanford University and established her own bench research program investigating the role of endothelial microRNA in vascular disease. While in the Leeper lab at Stanford, Kathryn became interested in the role of cellular communication within atherosclerotic plaques and efferocytosis (‘clearance of the dead’), a process that is dysregulated in vulnerable lesions. Her research question “Does endothelial activation lead to defective efferocytosis via altered microRNA secretion?” will use in vitro and animal models, as well as human tissue from the McMaster University and Peter Munk Cardiac Centre BioBanks. Her ultimate goal is to find early regulators of atherosclerosis for development of innovative strategies for improved screening tools, risk assessment, and intervention in advance of devastating clinical events such as stroke and myocardial infarction.