Regenerating the Heart

(News of Note - February 20, 2009) In the United States, there are more people on the waiting list for heart transplants than there are available donor organs. Using adult, human stem cells to grow a replacement heart could help solve the organ shortage both in the United States and abroad.

From left: Workshop participants, Dr. Sunica Canic of the University of Houston, Dr. Ravi Bellamkonda of the Georgia Institute of Technology/Emory University, and Dr. David Schaffer of the University of California, Berkeley, with Dr. James T. Willerson.

Recently, about a hundred of the foremost minds in cardiac regeneration gathered at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital (THI at SLEH) for a two-day workshop to develop a roadmap for the creation of “bioartificial” replacement hearts. The Texas Medical Center Cardiovascular Regeneration Seminar Series and Workshop was sponsored by THI at SLEH and The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston.

Participating in the seminar and workshop were: James T. Willerson, MD, President and Medical Director of THI at SLEH; Denton A. Cooley, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief and President Emeritus of THI at SLEH; David McPherson, MD, Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Executive Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Services at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Jack Smith, MD, PhD, Dean of The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston; and Ananth Annapragada, PhD, Associate Professor of The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston.

The program brought together the world’s best scientists in the field of cardiac regeneration research. Attendees were assigned to a specific breakout group. The groups were:

• Tissue engineering considerations
• Mathematical underpinnings
• Surgical criteria
• Imaging support

The charge of each group was to create a list of projects, the results of which would be important to the creation and successful use of a true bioartificial heart. At the end of the workshop, each group presented the results of its deliberations. The presentations are now being compiled into a final roadmap to be published in a suitable scientific journal.

The Texas Medical Center Cardiovascular Regeneration Seminar Series and Workshop was an important step in efforts to create a “total bioartificial heart” that could be implanted in a human recipient and serve as an alternative to a transplant. It was also another example of the leadership provided by the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and other institutions in the Texas Medical Center.

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