The 2018 Imagine Lecture will be held Sept. 6, 2018, at 7 p.m., in the Auditorium at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire.

Guest speaker Timothy J. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., will present "New Hearts for Old Problems."

Dr. Nelson is associate professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, Mayo Clinic; director, Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome; medical director, Regenerative Medicine Consult Service; and director, Research and Innovation, Mayo Clinic Health System in northwest Wisconsin.

He earned degrees from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. His residency and fellowship work was done at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

His research work is focused on cardiovascular regeneration using bioengineered stem cells to improve the ability to discover, diagnose and, ultimately, treat mechanisms of degenerative diseases, such as cardiomyopathy — a disease of the heart muscle, where the heart muscle becomes enlarged, thick or rigid. His research group starts with biopsy samples from patients with severe forms of heart disease and generates induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, cells that are genetically reprogrammed to create a model system for that patient’s disease in the laboratory. His lab looks to identify better ways to predict the onset and progression of genetic disease within the cell culture model system in the laboratory without the need for probing the patient beyond the initial tissue collection.

Dr. Nelson has published over 70 journal articles. Watch Dr. Nelson in a video, and learn more about his practice.

ABOUT THE LECTURE

The Imagine Lecture was inspired by the late Dr. David Winter’s relentless pursuit of knowledge, innovation and never being afraid to envision something more, different or better. Its guest lecturers embody those ideals and bring them to life to inspire others.

To make a donation to the lecture’s endowment, call 855-852-8129, or email development@mayo.edu.

ABOUT DAVID WINTER, M.D.

In 1995, Dr. Winter came to Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire as a promising new radiologist and was instrumental in several innovative changes within Eau Claire’s Radiology Department, most notably, the conversion to digital imagery. Dr. Winter was referred to by the medical director as one of Mayo Clinic Health System’s “best and brightest.” Dr. Winter’s life and career were tragically cut short from cancer in 2010 at the age of 47. His vision and inspiration live on through a lecture that exhibits the philosophy he inscribed in all his correspondence: “Imagine.”