Grant: Emerging Team Grant: Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine - LOI

Stem cell therapy holds great promise for treating compromised heart muscle tissue following heart attacks. However, there are two problems that require solutions for this potential to be realized: a ready source of these stem cells and a means of ensuring these stem cells remain in the tissue following implantation. Fat represents a potentially useful source of these stem cells, and we plan on investigating this potential. To ensure that these stem cells remain in the tissue and perform the required function, we also plan on investigating the ability of co-delivered protein molecules that act to encourage the stem cells to remain in place. To do this, we will design new polymer biomaterials. Ultimately, we aim to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach in an animal model of a heart attack.