Year 1

Patients with end-stage heart failure (ESHF) have a 2-year survival rate of 50% with conventional medical therapy. This dismal survival rate is actually significantly worse than patients with AIDS, liver cirrhosis, stroke, and other debilitating diseases. Stem cell therapy may be a promising strategy for inducing myocardial regeneration via paracrine activation, prevention of cardiac apoptosis, and other mechanisms. Several studies have convincingly shown that human embryonic stem cells can be differentiated into cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) and that these cells can be used to effectively improve cardiac function following myocardial infarction (MI). Over the past year, we have assembled a strong multi-disciplinary team and applied for the CIRM Disease Team Therapy proposal.