Provisional Program for the Annual RICS meeting
Leeuwenhorst, Noordwijkerhout
March 13, 2026
09.00 – 09.30
Registration → managing entrance
09.30 – 11.00
Plenary session (Room A)
• 09.25 – 09.30 Opening / Welcome
• 09.30 – 10.00 Dr. Jurjan Aman (Amsterdam UMC)
• 10.00- 11.00 Short oral presentations (6 × 10 min)
10:00 – 10:10: (V Ramovs) KLHL24 Mutation Drives Intermediate Filament
Degradation, Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Fibrosis in heart failure patients 10:10 – 10:20: (J Molenaar) Aging and regulation of antigen-specific T cells: Insights from ApoB100-specific CD4+ T Cells
10:20 – 10:30: (M Boosman) The sex of epicardium-derived cells influences the outgrowth of cardiac sympathetic nerves in vitro
10:30 – 10:40: (M Kotsi) Linking the innate and adaptive immune system: Neutrophilinduced local translation of endothelial CXCL12 mRNA to facilitate CD8+ T-Cell transmigration
10:40 – 10:50: (N Laachir) Progression of coronary artery calcification in melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors assessed on routine non-gated CT scans
10:50 – 11:00: (N Kruit) β3-Adrenergic–Driven Perivascular Adipose Tissue Browning
Reduces Preoperative Inflammation and Neovascular Maturation Without Affecting Vein Graft Morphology
11.00 – 11.30
Coffee break
11.30 – 12.35
Parallel sessions
• Room A: Parallel session 1 (short oral presentations) (see list of pitches below)
• Room B: Parallel session 2 (short oral presentations) (see list of pitches below)
12.35 – 13.45
Lunch
13.45 – 15.15
Plenary session (Room A)
Short oral presentations (9 × 10 min)
13:45 – 13:55: (D Zhao) Age-associated CD8+GZMK+ T-cells clonaly expand and preferentially home to the atherosclerotic plaque in mice
13:55 – 14:05: (BF Neep) SOX17 drives resilience of the arterial endothelium under shear stress
14:05 – 14:15: (ME Tebbens) Vascular heterogeneity determines leukocyte transendothelial migration efficiency
14:15 – 14:25: (P Peletier) Establishment of Conditionally Immortalized, Sex-Specific
Human Atrial Cardiac Microvascular Endothelial Cell Lines for Physiologically Relevant In Vitro Modeling
14:25 – 14:35: (TA Lapré) Inflammatory Lipid-Associated Macrophages: A Novel Target in Atherosclerosis
14:35 – 14:45: (VQ Sier) PCSK9 inhibition attenuates vein graft atherosclerosis independent of lipid lowering by reducing intraplaque hemorrhage and VCAM1mediated leukocyte infiltration
14:45 – 14:55: (AA Kanhai) IgE+CD63+ mast cells positively associate with neovascularization in advanced human atherosclerosis
14:55 – 15:05: (LF Zijlstra) The dual inflammatory role of liver x receptor (lxr) activation in human macrophages
15:05 – 15:15: (R Noordam) Proteomic assessment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease onset in participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus
15.15 – 15.45
Coffee break
15.45 – 16.45
Award session (plenary)
• 15.45 – 16.30 Prof Paul Quax (LUMC)
• 16.30 – 16.40 HeArt in Science competition
• 16:40 – 16:50 Awards, oral & Blitz presentation winner and runner-up (total 4 awards)
• 16:50 – 17:00 AIO grant Leiden
17:00 – 18.00
Drinks & networking
Parallel Session 1 (3 minute pitches)
1. (Westdorp) Clinical Outcomes and Safety of SGLT2 Inhibitor Therapy in Patients With a Systemic Right Ventricle and Heart Failure: A pre-post analysis From the ACHIEVESGLT2i registry
2. (Lems) Aging releases the brakes on the T-B cell axis in murine atherosclerosis
3. (van Dijk) Spectral Photoacoustic Imaging allows for Endothelium and T-cell visualization in Atherosclerotic Lesions
4. (Siadari) Cardiac MRI derived Longitudinal Diastolic Strain Rate Predicts Long Term Overall Survival post Kidney Transplantation: A Post Hoc analysis of ALLEGRO study
5. (Siadari) Renal Perfusion at midfield (0.6 T) using Arterial Spin Labeling; feasibility and comparison to 3T
6. (Ge) Hepatocytic disruption of ABCA6 increases non-HDL cholesterol and aggravates atherosclerosis by attenuating LDLR-mediated cholesterol clearance
7. (Lindenbergh) Integrative analysis of single-cell transcriptomics data reveals three distinct mast cell subpopulations in human atherosclerotic lesions
8. (van der Krogt) The RhoGEF Trio N-terminus improves the corneal endothelial barrier integrity
9. (Saleh) Clinical Outcomes of Adults With Anomalous Aortic Origin of a Coronary Artery: Data From the MuSCAT Registry
10. (Tebbens) The effect of Empagliflozin on oxidative stress in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells under low laminar flow conditions
11. (van der Linden) The role of endothelial heterogeneity and tissue-resident immune cells in vascular inflammation and immune cell extravasation
12. (Campell) Inequalities in early resuscitation after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: sex, socioeconomic status and location
13. (van der Vaart) Long-acting glucagon receptor agonism increases circulating triglyceride levels in diet-induced obese mice
Parallel Session 2 (3 minute pitches)
1. (Hof) Inflammatory lipid-associated macrophages have a distinct phenotype from other macrophage populations in human atherosclerotic plaques
2. (van Buren) Dexamethasone preserves microvascular integrity during ex vivo mouse heart perfusion
3. (Juni) Cardiac endothelial-enriched lncRNA IRENE governs the pathogenesis of HFpEF
4. (de Winter) Arteriovenous Fistula Remodeling Relies on Yes Associated Protein Activation in Response to Turbulent Blood Flow
5. (Hu) Generational trends and subgroup heterogeneity in cardiometabolic disease incidence: birth cohorts and age-period-cohort analyses in UK Biobank
6. (Inia) Obicetrapib and ezetimibe regress atherosclerotic lesions on atorvastatin background
7. (de Vlieger) Dissecting antigen-specific and antigen-independent CD8+ T-cell responses in atherosclerosis
8. (Okenov) Digital twinning of cardiac electrophysiology across translational platforms: in silico – in vitro – in clinical setting
9. (Wissen) Mast cell activation induced eosinophilia in pulmonary inflammation and atherosclerosis
10. (Paul) Quantification of myocardial perfusion in the beating heart with near-infrared fluorescence and indocyanine green during coronary artery bypass grafting
11. (van Liefferinge) The indestructible clot: characterization of cellular and molecular mechanisms at play
12. (Sadal) Quantitative Renal Perfusion Imaging Using Arterial Spin Labeling MRI in a Population-Based Cohort
13. (Çeker) Organelle remodeling in angiotensin II-induced hypertrophic cardiomyopathy