MARK SUSSMANThe American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions meeting wrapped up today (November 15) in New Orleans. Multiple tracks focused on cardiac cell therapy—the process of injecting cells into damaged hearts to regenerate healthy tissue—at both the clinical and basic-science stages.
The Scientist called up Mark Sussman, whose San Diego State University–based lab presented on a number of studies on improving cell therapy, to get his take on this year’s hot topics.
The Scientist: Your presentations have a theme of looking for the characteristics of optimal regenerative capacity of cardiac progenitor cells. Can you discuss some of your results?
Mark Sussman: A big challenge in the field right now is the recognition that the efficiency of the process is relatively poor. A lot of the cells that we put into the heart either die within a very short period of time or get flushed out. And a big question in my laboratory has been to understand how we can enhance the process and engraftment and persistence ...
