When   Thursday, May 21, 2009   Time   4:00 PM - 5:00 PM  
Where   Technological Instit M345 2145 Sheridan Rd.   map it
Audience   - Faculty/Staff - Student - Public
Contact   Virginia Lorenzo   847-491-5635  
Group   McCormick - Biomedical Engineering Department
More Info   http://bursaclab.bme.duke.edu/people/bursac.html

Nenad Bursac
Assistant Professor
Biomedical Engineering, Duke University

ABSTRACT: The use of stem cells to rebuild damaged heart has become one of the mainstream experimental concepts in cardiac research. Although some cardiac cell therapies have rapidly progressed to clinical trials with mixed, yet promising, results, several fundamental questions remain unanswered, including: 1) which stem cell type(s) will offer the most benefit with the least amount of risk, 2) to what extent do implanted stem cells and host cardiomyocytes directly interact, 3) how do these interactions affect the propagation of electrical activity, mechanical functioning, and propensity to potentially lethal arrhythmias, and 5) is the implantation of a stem cell-derived cardiac tissue patch a safer and more efficient alternative to cell injection?

One of the main obstacles to answering these questions has been the difficulty in tracking and systematically studying the structural and functional interactions between implanted cells and host cardiomyocytes in situ as well as the ability to produce relatively thick and large cardiac patches with native-like architecture and function. In this presentation, I will describe recent cell and tissue engineering efforts in my laboratory to establish: 1) standardized in vitro assays for systematic and quantitative studies of stem cell and cardiomyocyte interactions at both single cell and cell network levels and 2) novel methodologies for the design of relatively large and thick stem cell-derived cardiac tissue patches with controllable structure and function that can be used in experimental studies and future implantation therapies.