Hanjoong Jo is in demand in the United Kingdom. The John and Jan Portman Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, Jo was a big hit with British researchers and audiences during his visit there in September.

He received the Bernard and Joan Marshall Distinguished Investigator Award from the British Society of Cardiovascular Research at the annual BSCR Symposium in Sheffield England, where he also delivered the Marshall Lecture. Jo also gave a keynote speech at the annual UK Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting in London.

Each year the BSCR selects a researcher who made a significant contribution in the field of cardiovascular biology and disease. In Jo’s case, the organization recognized his work in the area of cardiovascular mechanobiology.

“I was deeply honored because the leaders in the UK who are my  peers and competitors specifically recognized the significance of my team’s work over the years on flow-sensitive genes in endothelial biology and their role in atherosclerosis and aortic valve disease,” said Jo, a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and associate chair of BME at Emory.

At the engineering society meeting he gave a presentation on mechanobiology in aortic valve disease. He discussed the dynamic hemodynamic environment of the aortic valve, how different flow conditions regular gene expression in the valve endothelium and how some of these flow-sensitive genes regulate valve biology and pathophysiology, and how the flow-sensitive genes can be used to develop novel therapeutics to reduce aortic valve disease.