The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) will broadcast live from its Annual Meeting for the first time. On Tuesday, July 26, Doris Taylor, PhD, Medtronic-Bakken Chair in Cardiac Repair, and Director of the Center for Cardiac Repair at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, will address the day’s Plenary Session on Stem Cells, Decellularization, and the Future of Building Organs. The session will last 90 minutes and this innovation will allow journalists unable to attend the Plenary Session to hear an internationally renowned researcher address the imbalance between the number of patients requiring a heart transplant and organ availability, as well as the importance of stem cell research to advancing medical care.
Taylor’s pioneering research has challenged the notion that cardiac myocytes cannot be regenerated. Building on the discovery that circulating myoblasts could repair skeletal muscle, she has used embryonic stem cells derived from non-human primates and humans as an in vitro model for understanding human development. Using a decellularized rat heart as a scaffold, Taylor has demonstrated that stem cells could reconstitute that inert structure, resulting in a beating heart. This work has led to clinical trials of intravenous administration of mesenchymal stem cells from donated bone marrow to treat patients with cardiac damage. Her work has achieved wide international recognition and offers the possibility of intravenous therapy both to treat and prevent heart failure.
For more information, e-mail Peter Patterson.
Source: American Association for Clinical Chemistry
