Heart Graft Provides Alternative for Chronic Heart Failure Patients

Heart Graft Provides Alternative for Chronic Heart Failure Patients

G, L, WV

UArizona researchers Dr. Steven Goldman, professor of medicine, Dr. Jordan Lancaster, assistant research scientist, and Dr. Jen Watson Koevary, research assistant professor of biomedical engineering, have developed a tissue-engineered, biodegradable heart graft for treating patients with heart failure with Nobel Prize-winning induced pluripotent stem cell technology. The heart graft will be pre-made, cryopreserved and ready for implantation. Ultimately, this technology has the ability to offset the burden of patients needing heart transplant, offering a promising alternative treatment for chronic heart failure patients, with the ability to regenerate function in damaged tissues. The researchers created local startup Avery Therapeutics, Inc., which has licensed the technology. Pre-clinical studies have already shown that the technology, MyCardia™, improves heart function, and the team aims to make the technology the world's first off-the-shelf product for treatment of heart failure. 

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