Disease Focus: Heart Disease
Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference
“Stem Cell Therapies for Heart Failure”
Our multi-institutional program is dedicated to the treatment of heart failure, which has become a leading cause of death in California and the U. S. The high death toll continues to climb despite many significant recent advances in the medical treatment of heart failure. The disease is due to a debilitating loss and/or dysfunction of […]
{REDACTED} Heart Disease Regenerative Medicine Team Planning Award
The present planning grant application lays the groundwork for a collaborative heart disease regenerative medicine team. We plan to develop sequential preclinical and clinical investigations directed at regenerative stem cell-based approaches to treating the following major cardiovascular diseases: heart attack and its sequelae; congestive heart failure; and heart block requiring a pacemaker. The basic foundation […]
Metabolic regulation of cardiac differentiation and maturation
Cells in the body take up nutrients from their environment and metabolize them in a complex set of biochemical reactions to generate energy and replicate. Control of these processes is particularly important for heart cells, which need large amounts of energy to drive blood flow throughout the body. Not surprisingly, the nutritional requirements of heart […]
Improving Existing Drugs for Long QT Syndrome type 3 (LQT3) by hiPSC Disease-in-Dish Model
This project uses patient hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes to develop a safe and effective drug to treat a serious heart health condition. This research and product development will provide a novel method for a human genetic heart disorder characterized by long delay (long Q-T interval) between heart beats caused by mutations in the Na+ channel α subunit. […]
Tissue Collection for Accelerating iPSC Research in Cardiovascular Diseases
Heart failure is a very common and chronic condition defined by an inability of the heart to pump blood effectively. Over half of cases of heart failure are caused by a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy, which involves dilation of the heart cavity and weakening of the muscle. Importantly, many cases of this disease do not […]
Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiovascular Progenitor Cells for Cardiac Cell Therapy.
Despite therapeutic advances, cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in California. Regenerative therapies that restore normal function after a heart attack would have an enormous societal and financial impact. Although very promising, regenerative cardiac cell therapy faces a number of challenges and technological hurdles. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) allow […]
Preclinical evaluation of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitors in a large animal model
Because the regenerative capacity of adult heart is limited, any substantial cell loss as a result of a heart attack is mostly irreversible and may lead to progressive heart failure. Human pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated to heart cells, but their properties when transplanted into an injured heart remain unresolved. We propose to perform […]
Epigenetic regulation of human cardiac differentiation
Each cell type in our body has its own identity. This identity allows a heart cell to contract repetitively, and a brain cell to conduct nerve impulses. Each cell type gains its identity by turning on or off thousands of genes that together give the cell its identity. Understanding how these sets of genes are […]
Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Pacemaking Cells
Currently, over 350,000 patients per year with abnormal heart rhythm receive electronic pacemakers to restore their normal heart beat. Electronic pacemakers do not respond to the need for changing heart rate in situations such as exercise and have limited battery life, which can be resolved with biopacemakers. In this proposed project, we will examine methods […]