Philippe Connes obtained a PhD in Montpellier in 2003 in the field of exercise physiology and hematology. He was then recruited in 2004 as a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Physiology at the Laboratory ACTES - Department of Physiology (University of the French West Indies, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe). In 2008, he obtained a 5 yrs Inserm National Research Contract to work as a researcher in the UMR Inserm 1134 “Integrative Biology of Red Blood Cell” at the Academic Hospital of Pointe-à-Pitre (University of the French West Indies, Guadeloupe). He got its accreditation to supervise research (HDR) from the University of the French West Indies (Guadeloupe) in 2009. In 2013, he successfully applied to the French University Institute (IUF) as a junior member (5 yrs contract). In 2014, he was promoted on a Full Professor position at the University of Lyon (France). Since that time he leads the "Vascular Biology and Red Blood Cell" team in the LIBM laboratory (EA7424). He mainly works on the cellular/biological/physiological mechanisms involved in sickle cell disease complications and in other hematological disorders. He is internationally recognized in the field of blood rheology and microcirculation and serves as Academic/Assistant Editor for several scientific journals: Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, Frontiers in Physiology (section Red Blood Cell) and Plos One. Philippe Connes is also the Scientific Research referent of the Constitutive Reference Center on Red Blood Cell disorders in Lyon. He published more than 180 scientific articles and several book chapters mainly in the field of sickle cell disease, red blood cell rheology, vascular physiology, sickle cell trait/diabetes.... He is currently an Executive Board member in the European Society of Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation (ESCHM), the French club of Red Blood Cell and Iron (Club du Globule Rouge et du Fer) and the International Society for Clinical Hemorheology (ISCH).

Robert S. Rosenson, MD, is Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Director of Cardiometabolic Disorders at Mount Sinai Heart, New York, New York. He received his medical degree at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, and went on to complete his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, followed by a fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

Dr Rosenson is a Fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, and the AHA Council on Epidemiology and Prevention. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American College of Physicians. Dr Rosenson has long been an active member of the National Lipid Association and has served on its board of directors, program development committee, and expert panels. Dr. Rosenson served as Co-Chair for the task force on HDL biology. He led three international working groups on HDL that resulted in seminal articles on HDL nomenclature, HDL and macrophage cholesterol, and HDL functionality.

He has additionally served as principal investigator (PI) on a number of studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), pharmaceutical-sponsored drug trials, and multicenter studies. Dr Rosenson was Global PI of the PLASMA I, PLASMA II, FRANCIS and BANTING trials. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Ground-Breaking Doctors Award from Chicago magazine, and was named New York Top Doc from 2015 to 2019. Dr Rosenson was named recipient of the Simon Dack Award for outstanding scholarship by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019. The International Academy of Cardiology honored him with the Jan J. Kellerman Memorial Award in 2016 for distinguished contributions in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention. In 2017, UpToDate recognized him for 20 years of Outstanding Contributions as Editor. In 2019, he was awarded the Clinician Educator Award from the National Lipid Association honoring continued excellence in clinical care of patients with lipid disorders and/or excellence in the field of clinical lipidology. He was selected by the Univesity of Toronto for the “Great Minds and Great Medicine: Isadore Rosenfeld Visiting Lectureship”.

His ongoing research interests include the effects of novel lipid-lowering therapy, inflammation, and rheology. On March 1, 2019, Dr Rosenson received an NIH award to study HDL proteomics, inflammatory traits and incident Alzheimer’s Disease in REGARDS. He has authored more than 300 journal articles published in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, he has written 700 book chapters and abstracts, as well as electronic publications for UpToDate Medicine. Dr Rosenson is former co-Editor in Chief for Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy, Section Editor on Metabolic Disorders for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Section Editor on Lipid Disorders for UptoDate.