Biographical note

Amy Firth, Ph.D. received both her M.Sc. in Pharmacology and her Ph.D. in Pulmonary Physiology and Ion Channel Regulation at University of Bath, UK. For two years, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego where she studied the pathogenic mechanisms contributing to Pulmonary Hypertension. For this work she was a finalist in the American Heart Association’s Cournand and Comroe Young Investigator Award. She is currently a Research Associate at The Salk Institute where her research focuses on generating iPSCs from somatic cells of patients with various diseases, primarily respiratory. By differentiating these cells she is able to study the pathogenic mechanisms of a variety of lung diseases. She is a member of several international societies including International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), the American Physiological Society and the American Thoracic Society.

Jason X.-J. Yuan, M.D., Ph.D., received his M.D. at Suzhuo Medical College in China and his Ph.D. from Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing through a joint training program with the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He is currently Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology; Director, Pulmonary Research Program for Personalized Respiratory Medicine; and Director, Program in Pulmonary Vascular Disease and Right Heart Function Center for Cardiovascular Research at the College of Medicine at University of Illinois - Chicago. His lab focuses on studying pulmonary vascular physiology and pathophysiology, ion channel electrophysiology and pathogenic mechanisms of pulmonary vascular disease. He is particularly interested in the pathogenic role of stem/progenitor cells in pulmonary vascular disease. In addition he is currently Editor-in-Chief for Pulmonary Circulation and Chair of the Pulmonary Circulation Assembly of the American Thoracic Society.