The Young Scientists Session was opened by the plenary session dedicated to obstacles and challenges that are faced by the medical community. Young researchers presented their original studies addressed to burning issues of modern cardiology. The Professor of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery №2, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, N. Neminuschiy presented new insights regarding the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators to the medical community.
	The Senior Medical Advisor at the biopharmaceutical company “Amgen”, PhD S. Bajan discussed with young scientists the necessity to apply novel biotechnological approaches for treating atherosclerosis as well as new drug therapies for treating dyslipidemia.
	The closing plenary speech of M. Vander, a cardiologist at the Department of Rhythm Disturbance Endovascular Treatment and Pacing, Federal North-West Medical Research Centre, covers current challenges of using rational anticoagulant therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing interventional procedures (radiofrequency ablation) according to the recent guidelines.

The scientific programme of the Annual Session included the discussions of original studies performed by young scientists and cardiologists. Their reports were mostly focused at fundamental and practical aspects of modern medical science: from epidemiology of cardiovascular risk factors even up to mathematical modeling of original designs of bioprosthetic valves.

Two sections were organized to facilitate the discussion: “Promising Approaches in Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients with Multivessel and Polyvascular Disease” and “Promising Approaches in Translational Medicine”. Each section contained 15 presentations performed by young scientists and cardiologists. 

This year a panel of leading experts from the biomedical community at the Annual Session of Young Scientists included: the leader of the Kuzbass Society of Cardiology, PhD, Professor Olga Barbarash (Kemerovo); Deputy Director for Research at the NII KPSSZ, PhD, Professor Galina Artamonova (Kemerovo); a well-known arrhythmia specialist, PhD, Professor Nikolai Neminuschiy (Moscow); a heart rhythm specialist Marianna Vander (Saint-Petersburg), the Secretary of the Working Group of Young Cardiologists of the Russian Society of Cardiology, PhD Svetlana Garkina (Saint-Petersburg); a well-known specialist in interventional cardiology, PhD. Vladimir Ganiukov (Kemerovo); Professor of the Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery Department at the Kemerovo State Medical University, PhD. Viktoria Karetnikova (Kemerovo); the Head of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Cardiology at the NII KPSSZ, Ph.D. Julia Kudryavtseva (Kemerovo); PhD Stepan Bajan; and the Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists of the NII KPSSZ, PhD Vasily Kashtalap (Kemerovo).

Each report provoked comments and questions from the expert panel and the medical community, leading to a lively discussion. In each session the expert panel defined the winners of the Young Investigator Award.

The winners in the section “Promising Approaches in Diagnosis and Treatment of Patients with Multivessel and Polyvascular Disease” are the follows:

• 1^st Place Young Investigator Award was given to Alekseeva Jana, a resident at the Emergency Cardiology Department, Research Institute of Cardiology (Tomsk) for the original study “Single bolus injection of 15 mg recombinant nonimmunogenic staphylokinase in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction";

• 2^nd Place Young Investigator Award was given to Masenko Vladislava, an associate researcher at the Department of Cardiovascular Disease Diagnostics, NII KPSSZ (Kemerovo) for the original study “New approaches to the X-ray diagnosis of osteopenic syndrome in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease”;

• 3^rd Place Young Investigator Award was given to Kochergina Anastasia, a researcher at the Department of Multivessel and Polyvascular Disease, NII KPSSZ (Kemerovo) for the original study “Management of ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome in the in-vasive in-hospital settings. RECORD-3 Registry Data”;

• 3^rd Place Young Investigator Award was given to Vakkosov Kamoliddin, a PhD student in the NII KPSSZ (Kemerovo) for the original study “30 - day outcomes after the implantation of the bioresorbable vascular scaffold “Absorb” in patients with single-vessel coronary disease and stable coronary artery disease”.

The winners in the section “Promising Approaches in Translational Medicine” are as follows:

• 1^st Place Young Investigator Award was given to Shishkova Daria, an associate researcher at the Department of Experimental and Clinical Cardiology, NII KPSSZ (Kemerovo) for the original study “Possibilities of polychrome staining in biopsy specimen for light microscopy”;

• 2^nd Place Young Investigator Award was given to Aleksandrenko Victoria, a resident at the Department of General Cardiology and Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease, NII of Cardiology (Tomsk) for the original study “Associations between ACE I / D polymorphism, the severity of heart muscle damage, the severity of coronary atherosclerosis and complicated course of myocardial infarction”;

• 3^rd Place Young Investigator Award was given to Chichkova Tatiana, a cardiologist, a PhD student in the NII KPSSZ (Kemerovo) for the original study “Comparison of clinical efficacy between cryoballoon and radiofrequency ablation for atrial fibrillation”;

• 3^rd Place Young Investigator Award was given to Dmitriy Dolgov, a PhD student in the Kemerovo State University (Kemerovo) for the original study “Mathematical modeling of an heart valve prosthesis”.

The first day of the Young Scientists Session was informative and thought provoking. The expert panel underlined high scientific and practical significance of all reports presented by young scientists. The medical community appreciated the originality of all presented studies which were focused on major challenges in modern cardiology.

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