Cardiovascular Therapeutics Lab: Clinical Trials in a Dish

Our current research focuses on the stem cell treatment of the damaged heart following myocardial infarction (MI) with the aid of biomimetic or tissue-engineered scaffolds composed of human stem cells for cardiac regeneration (Cellular Therapy) and extracellular vesicles/exosomes derived from the stem cells (acellular therapy). In this endeavor for cardiac repair, we use reprogram hiPSCs into functional cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and use them for tissue engineering applications by seeding them on the nanofiber scaffolds and to establish an in situ model for clinical trials in a dish. My short-term goal is to identify and establish novel biomaterials  for tissue engineering to enhance the survival and engraftment of stem cells post transplantation into the ischemic myocardium, which is one of the major obstacles in effective stem cell treatment for cardiac repair. My long-term research interests center around the translation of stem-cell therapy for the myocardial repair into preclinical large animal translational MI model and ultimately into patients with advance heart failure. Our lab is also working on identifying novel cardiac biomarkers in plasma-derived exosomes isolated from MI patients.