Grant to Better Understand Cardiac Stem Cells

An international consortium of cardiac stem cell experts, including two Australians has been awarded a $6million USD grant to better understand the role of these cells in heart function and repair.
The grant was awarded by the France-based Fondation Leducq Transatlantic Networks of Excellence and will enable the team to reveal more about cardiac stem cells and their role in heart function and repair.
Consortium members include Professor Richard Harvey from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and Professor Nadia Rosenthal from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University and Imperial College, London, as well as researchers from US National Institutes of Health, Universite De Pierre et Marie Curie-Sorbonne Universite, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and San Diego State University. The consortium is headed by Professors Torn Finkel and David Sassoon.
Commenting on the grant, Professor Rosenthal said, “The last decade has seen a tremendous interest in the possibility that cardiac stem cells could be used to help patients. “However, we need to better understand their characteristic roles and interactions with other cells of the heart if we are to develop sophisticated regenerative therapies for the future.
“This grant provides an unprecedented opportunity to bring together experts from across the world to comprehensively evaluate these cells.”