Bioengineering professor Karen Christman's new injectable hydrogel, which is designed to repair damaged cardiac tissue following a heart attack, has been licensed to San Diego-based startup Ventrix, Inc, which is planning the first human clinical trials of the technology. Christman is a co-founder of Ventrix.
In a 2013 study published in Science Translational Medicine, Christman reported the semi-solid, porous gel encourages cells to repopulate areas of damaged cardiac tissue and to preserve heart function. The hydrogel forms a scaffold to repair the tissue and increases cardiac muscle.
You can learn more about this technology at Research Expo on April 17, where Christman is one of six faculty speakers. In the meantime, watch our video report above. Wang, an M.D./Ph.D. student in bioengineering, will present a poster explaining her research on how the hydrogel works to rebuild tissue in damaged hearts.
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