ABOUT : CONFERENCE HISTORY

The Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference is a continuation of an annual meeting of investigators funded by three separate RFAs on Cardiac Development in 1986, 1988, and 1990 at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institue of the National Institues of Health.  Grants funded under the RFA mechanism resulted in a total of 26 research programs in the area of Cardiac Development. A separate program of Specialized Centers in Research (SCORs) in Congenital Heart Disease resulted in the addition of investigators from the Universities of Iowa, Pennsylvania and Rochester. Investigators were brought together annually at the National Institutes of Health to discuss their latest research results and discuss potential areas of collaboration. The first meeting was held in a basement meeting room at the NIH and included approximately a dozen participants.  These annual meetings at the NIH between 1986 and 1993 continued to grow as new research programs were funded and by word of mouth with collaborators.  These meetings coincided with the emergence of molecular biological and genetic approaches to the investigation of heart development.  Upon the expiration of the last of the RFA programs, there was a strong interest in keeping these collegial and informative meetings going.  Independent meetings have been held every year since 1994. 

Dr. Constance Weinstein of the NHLBI was instrumental in focusing the attention of the NIH on the need for research in this area. She obtained the funds for the RFA and SCOR programs and organized the intramural meetings held at the NIH.  To honor Dr. Weinstein, in 1995, the meeting was formally named the Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference.  Dr. Weinstein is retired from NHLBI but she attends these conferences to monitor progress in the field that she spent so much effort fostering.

Previous sites:

Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, 1994).

University of Rochester (Rochester, 1995)

University of Pennsylvannia (Philadelphia, 1996)

University of Cinncinnati (Cincinnati, 1997)

Vanderbilt University (Nashville, 1998)

University of Arizona (Tucson, 1999)

Washington University (St. Louis , 2000),

University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School (Dallas, 2001)

University of Utah (Salt Lake City, 2002),

Harvard University (Cambridge, 2003)

Leiden University (co-sponsored with MUSC in The Netherlands 2004)

Confirmed Future Sites:

University of South Florida (St. Petersburg, 2006)

Indiana University (Indianapolis, 2007)