MIR Hosts IMMUNO-FIB HF Network

Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) hosted investigators from around the globe for the Inflammatory-Fibrosis Axis in Ischemic Heart Failure (IMMUNO-FIB HF) network meeting at WashU Medicine. The two-day event included guest and rapid-fire speaker sessions and presentations from seed grant awardees. A vast network, members traveled to St. Louis from Pennsylvania, Maine and various locations in Germany.

IMMUNO-FIB HF, which is funded by the Leducq Foundation, comprises researchers with diverse expertise in inflammation and fibrosis related to heart health who conduct basic and translational research to advance diagnostics and therapeutics for myocardial injury. This collaboration aims to foster innovative diagnostics and therapeutics to enhance patient care.

Robert J. Gropler, MD, serves as the network’s imaging initiative lead coordinator. “We envision that molecular imaging will offer unprecedented insights into the natural history of cardiac inflammation and fibrosis, enhance crosstalk between bench and bedside, provide paradigm-shifting diagnostic tools to assign patient prognosis, and safely enable precise implementation of therapeutics targeting the inflammatory-fibrosis axis,” said Gropler, professor of radiology and senior vice chair and division director of radiological sciences at MIR.