What If…Your Heart Could Repair Itself?
Part of the Future of Aging: Medical Moonshots series
Dr. Jennifer Davis of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine will discuss research aimed at re-engineering scar tissue in ways that allow damaged heart muscle to heal.
Heart failure is the number one killer of mankind—more than all cancers combined—yet to date we have no cure. The heart has no capacity to replace cardiac muscle cells lost due to a heart attack or other injuries, and fibrotic scarring physically prevents transplanted cells from integrating with the host heart’s, resulting in transplanted cells or tissue patches dying. Thus, fibrotic scarring is the major barrier to regenerative strategies. Our research group has pioneered new cell engineering approaches to directly control fibroblasts—the cells responsible for fibrotic scarring. If we can short-circuit the formation of fibrotic scars, it may be possible to regenerate damaged heart tissue and preserve heart function.
Speakers
Jennifer Davis, PhD
Director, UW Center for Cardiovascular Biology
Associate Director, UW Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering & Pathology
Email: jendavis@uw.edu
Dr. Davis, a cellular and molecular physiologist, uses genetic engineering to study the biology of cardiac wound healing and remodeling. Specifically, she investigates the role of scar tissue in repair processes and how it affects heart muscle function and prevents regeneration. Dr. Davis identified a key set of molecular signals that activate scar-forming myofibroblast cells, and she has successfully engineered them to either promote or block scarring, both at the cellular level and in genetically modified mice. Dr. Davis earned her Ph.D. in Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan, followed by postdoctoral training at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Heart Institute. In 2014, she won the Louis N. & Arnold M. Katz Basic Science Research Prize for Young Investigators from the American Heart Association.