Curriculum

This signature event serves as a warm introduction to the TPTCS community each September, welcoming new trainees and trainers alongside those already in the program. A longstanding tradition held at the home of the director or co-director, these dinners foster an esprit de corps among participants through informal networking. Attendees share their professional and personal backgrounds, setting the stage for collaboration and camaraderie. The business portion of the evening includes an overview of training requirements, program timeline, the Individual Development Plan (IDP), the significance of Responsible Conduct of Research, and a discussion of the essence of translational research. Dinner and lively conversation ensue. This gathering ignites a sense of unity and shared purpose, energizing the program for the year ahead.

Held in December and May, the Semester Meetings provide a dynamic forum for intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration. Each trainee delivers a 20-minute presentation showcasing their research, followed by 5-10 minutes of lively discussion. Half of the cohort presents at the Fall meeting, the other half in the Spring. Renowned for the exceptional quality of the presentations, these meetings are a catalyst for the cross-pollination of ideas across basic, clinical, and translational research. Enthusiasm for the Semester Meetings continues to grow, with each meeting building on the success of the last and solidifying their role as a cornerstone of the program’s collaborative culture.

The CVRC hosts three monthly journal clubs – Heart Failure/Cardioregenerative Medicine, Arrhythmias/Ion Channel Research, and Atherosclerosis/Vascular Biology – so that one meets nearly every week of the academic year. Each session begins with a brief background, followed by discussion of one or two recent articles, with explicit attention to rigor, reproducibility, and study design. Led by CVRC faculty (Drs. de Lange, Glukhov, and Liu), the clubs attract ~30 participants from mailing lists of 90+, and all TPTCS trainees present at least once. Meetings are interactive and often spark collaborations across laboratories. Trainees may also present their own work, honing critical thinking, developing communication, and building confidence. These journal clubs serve as a cornerstone of the training environment, providing a forum for scientific debate, reinforcing responsible and reproducible research practices, and fostering collegiality and collaboration within the CVRC.

Held each fall, the annual Cardiovascular Research Summit brings world-class cardiovascular researchers to Madison to address emerging topics and technologies in translational cardiovascular science. In 2024 the CVRC celebrated its 30^th anniversary at the Summit, featuring internationally recognized speakers as well as TPTCS faculty and trainees.

The summit includes aTPTCS Career Panel, featuring distinguished program alumni as panelists, including physician scientists, senior scientists in industry, tenure-track professors that are principal investigators at other major research universities, and scientists in government positions. The program fosters strong connections between current trainees and accomplished professionals, creating a network that aims to open doors for career advancement and interdisciplinary collaboration, reinforcing the program’s legacy of excellence. Connect with the community on LinkedIn at Cardiovascular Research Center, UW-Madison (past and present)!

The Annual Scientific Poster Fair, integrated into the Cardiovascular Research Summit, features a face-to-face showcase of trainee research spanning diverse cardiovascular disciplines. A long-standing TPTCS tradition, the event has featured over 1,200 posters in its 20-year history, providing trainees with invaluable opportunities to engage with leaders in the field. TPTCS trainees are expected to present each year, pending sufficient research progress.

The CVRC hosts a monthly conference featuring international and UW-Madison speakers, showcasing advances in TPTCS focus areas and technologies such as proteomics, genomics, computational biology, spectroscopy, and cryo-EM. A longstanding program highlight, the series is informal and well attended, fostering lively discussion and networking through pre- and post-seminar receptions. Trainees are required to attend and join a small-group lunch with the speaker, creating valuable opportunities for mentorship, collaboration, and career development. The current calendar of speakers can be found on our events page.