Dr. Charles Antzelevitch, Executive Director and Director of Research of the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory (MMRL), was invited to give the Plenary Lecture at the first ever national meeting of the Korea Heart Rhythm Society. The meeting held at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea on June 12 and 13, brought together cardiologists and electrophysiologists from throughout the world. Antzelevitch also presented a seminar to the medical students at Seoul National University. His lectures focused on mechanisms of abnormal rhythms of the heart, particularly sudden death syndromes including Long QT, Short QT, Early repolarization and Brugada syndromes. The MMRL is a world leader in unraveling the genetic causes for these syndromes and for the design of better strategies to diagnose and treat these diseases.

The Masonic Medical Research Laboratory, located in Utica, NY, is an internationally renowned medical research and educational institute dedicated to studies of the electrical activity of the heart and the mechanisms responsible for abnormal rhythms of the heart and sudden cardiac death. The MMRL is also a center for genetic screening of inherited cardiac arrhythmia diseases. MMRL scientists have delineated the genetic basis for several inherited sudden cardiac death syndromes and uncovered the mechanisms responsible for many forms of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias as well as the mechanisms by which drugs act to precipitate arrhythmias.