Developing New Therapies for Heart Failure - Dr. Charles Hong | Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund

Dr. Charles C. Hong and his lab are utilizing cutting-edge multidisciplinary approaches to develop new therapies for the 6 million Americans suffering from heart failure. As the Director of Cardiology Research and Melvin Sharoky MD Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Hong knows firsthand the impact of heart diseases and the lack of novel therapies.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, claiming the lives of an estimated 17.9 million people each year. Therefore, there is an urgent need to study this disease and discover new drugs. Popular methods to investigate cardiovascular biology rely on animal models whose heart cells are fundamentally different from humans, posing a significant challenge in this field. Dr. Hong addresses this challenge by implementing a more appropriate model system using human-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that are further differentiated into cardiomyocytes. His goal is to use this system to develop a platform for drug discovery, as well as study diseased human cardiomyocytes.

Dr. Hong describes how support from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) has “allowed us to continue our cutting-edge research in helping us to better use these stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to faithfully recapitulate the human heart tissue”. The innovative work of the Hong Lab continuously advances cardiology research and holds great impact for future personalized therapies for people suffering from heart failure.

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