Beating heart disease

Cardiovascular disease is the UK’s biggest killer. Over the past decade Barts and The London Charity funding has supported a number of strategically important investments at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, enabling it to make significant contributions to cardiovascular research and medicine. A hugely exciting project which is gaining international interest is research into the use of stem cell therapy.

With support from the Charity, Professor Anthony Mathur and his team have successfully completed the first two clinical trials, looking at the use of adult stem cells to treat patients with heart disease, particularly those with hearts damaged by heart attacks. Stem cells from heart patients are taken and injected into heart tissue. The stem cells then begin to replace and repair damaged tissue, including vascular systems and heart muscle. The team are now desparate to begin work on a third set of trials which will focus on patients with cardiomyopathy - people with a weak heart that has no obvious cause – but further funding is still needed.