At the July 17 Rotary meeting, Mark Johnson led the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by Mark Lucchesi offering an inspirational Invocation.
Mark then went on to recognize birthdays, wedding anniversaries and Rotary anniversaries.
Christine Krolik announced that the Rotary 100th birthday celebration will be Thursday, January 30 at the Kohl Mansion and asked for any and all interested in participating to join one of the celebration subcommittees.
On the topic of sign-ups, we need volunteers to staff the Rotary booth at Burlingame on the Avenue August 17 & 18.
At Bobba Venkatadri’s behest, we Rotarians had the pleasure and the privilege of hearing a presentation from Michael Kokesh about ViCardia Therapeutics and how that company is “transforming heart failure treatment.”
Some key facts about the heart. The heart consumes more energy than any other organ, beats 115,200 times per day, and pumps 10 tons of blood every day through a circulatory system that is roughly 60,000 miles long.
ViCardia is focused on Acute Heart Failure, which occurs when the heart cannot properly pump blood because of weakness or stiffness of the heart muscle. Symptoms are commonly low energy, difficulty breathing, weight gain and swelling of the legs or abdomen.
Acute Heart Failure is widespread and deadly. There has been no new therapy approved for Acute Heart Failure in decades. Current heart therapies are focused on “downstream” symptoms and do not address the underlying cause: abnormal energy production by mitochondria.
The exciting news is that ViCardia has developed GP-531, the first therapy targeting “upstream” mitochondrial dysfunction. A Phase 2 clinical trial is expected to start in January 2025.
Burlingame/Hillsborough Rotary offer our heartfelt (sorry, couldn’t resist) thanks to Bobba and to Michael for sharing with us and offer our very best wishes on this important work.
