Disease Focus: Heart Disease
Technology for hESC-Derived Cardiomyocyte Differentiation and Optimization of Graft-Host Integration in Adult Myocardium
Stem cells therapies hold great promise in the treatment of cardiac diseases such as coronary heart disease or congestive heart failure. Thanks to their ability to transform into almost any kind of tissue, engrafted stem cells can potentially replace damaged heart tissues with healthy tissues, effectively restoring the heart’s original functions. While initial studies demonstrated […]
Micro Platform for Controlled Cardiac Myocyte Differentiation
Congestive heart failure, the inability of the heart to continue to pump effectively due to damage of its muscle cells, affects approximately 4.8 million Americans and is a leading cause of mortality. Causes of the irreversible damage to the cardiomyocytes that results in congestive heart failure include hypertension, heart attacks, and coronary disease. Because the […]
Micro Platform for Controlled Cardiac Myocyte Differentiation
Congestive heart failure, the inability of the heart to continue to pump effectively due to damage of its muscle cells, affects approximately 4.8 million Americans and is a leading cause of mortality. Causes of the irreversible damage to the cardiomyocytes that results in congestive heart failure include hypertension, heart attacks, and coronary disease. Because the […]
Specification of Ventricular Myocyte and Pacemaker Lineages Utilizing Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Heart failure is a leading cause of mortality in California and the United States. Currently, there are no “cures” for heart failure.Other life threatening forms of heart disease include dysfunction of cardiac pacemaker cells, necessitating implantation of mechanical pacemakers. Although mechanical pacemakers can be efficacious, there are potential associated problems, including infection, limited battery half-life, […]
Discovering Potent Molecules with Human ESCs to Treat Heart Disease
This work is directly relevant to human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research because it brings new ideas about novel compounds to affect cardiomyogenesis. The work addresses an urgent need to develop new agents to treat cardiovascular disease. We will develop potent and selective drug-like molecules as cardiomyocyte differentiation agents. Heart disease is the leading cause […]
Autologous cardiac-derived cells for advanced ischemic cardiomyopathy
The adult human heart contains small numbers of cardiac stem cells that are able to partially repair the heart following a heart attack or throughout the course of progressive heart failure. We have developed a method to isolate these cells and grow them to large numbers in the lab. Isolation begins with a minimally-invasive biopsy […]
Human Cardiovascular Progenitors, their Niches and Control of Self-renewal and Cell Fate
For the millions of Americans who are born with or develop heart disease, stem cell research offers the first hope of reversing or repairing heart muscle damage. Thus, early reports suggesting heart regeneration after transplantation of adult bone marrow-derived stem cells were met with great excitement in both the scientific and lay community. However, although […]
Growing Stem Cell Research in California: Todd McDevitt Lab, Gladstone Institutes
California’s Stem Cell Agency (CIRM) has catalyzed the growth of stem cell research by helping recruit scientists to the state. In this video, we feature Dr. Todd McDevitt, a leading biomedical engineer in stem cell research who recently moved to California as a Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. Photos and microscopy images […]
Heart disease: Progress toward stem cell therapies, a live Google Hangout
Watch this Google Hangout to learn about recent progress in developing stem cell therapies for heart disease. Hear from stem cell clinical trial participant Fred Lesikar, stem cell experts Dr. Joseph Wu (Stanford) and Dr. Bruce Conklin (Gladstone Institutes) and CIRM science officer Dr. Cathy Priest. For more information about heart disease research funded by California’s […]
Webinar: Stem Cell Clinical Trial for Heart Disease – Lessons Learned | Eduardo Marbán
Title: Lessons learned from Phase 1 trial of heart-derived stem cells as we move into Phase 2 Speaker: Eduardo Marbán, M.D., Ph.D. Founder and Chairman of Scientific Advisory Board, Capricor, Inc. and Director, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Mark S. Siegel Family Professor Presented April 15, 2013 This presentation was part of the webinar event, “Clinical […]