Marcus Foundation Awards USC $28.7 Million for 18-Patient Heart Stem Cell Trial
Updated
Updated · billionaires.africa · Aug 14
Marcus Foundation Awards USC $28.7 Million for 18-Patient Heart Stem Cell Trial
3 articles · Updated · billionaires.africa · Aug 14
Summary
$28.7 million from the Marcus Foundation will fund a 2027 USC-led clinical trial testing stem-cell-derived heart muscle cells in patients left with severe damage after major heart attacks.
Roughly 18 patients in the first phase will receive the cells directly into scarred heart tissue at Keck Hospital of USC, with researchers focused first on safety, feasibility and signs of improved cardiac function.
A second site at the University of Washington will join the study, while a parallel program examines immune responses to transplanted cardiac cells to reduce reliance on immunosuppressive drugs.
The gift is the foundation's largest to USC and one of its biggest in academic medicine, backing technology Dr. Chuck Murry's team has developed over three decades for a condition with no current way to restore lost heart muscle.
Could gene-edited stem cells completely reverse heart attack damage, or does this living medicine carry hidden risks for the first human test subjects?
With human trials approaching, how will researchers prevent the body's immune system from rejecting these revolutionary lab-grown heart muscle cells?