Page 40 - An Innovation Spirit ...

“We’re trying to understand, at the than one gene, and it runs in her family Unique
molecular level, the cascade of events – she made up her mind to lose 50 international
that lead to the heart muscle failing. But pounds when she turned 50 this year. collaboration
we’re just at the tip of understanding poised for
every pathway and exactly why the She walked at a fast pace on the breakthroughs in
heart fails and why some people recover treadmill at home for 55 minutes cardiovascular
and some don’t. There are so many most days at maximum incline while therapy
unanswered questions.” watching episodes of Game of Thrones,
limited her calories to 1,000 per day on They’re not making whole new Dr. Keller explains
The heart, she suggests, for all that it is days when she didn’t exercise and lost hearts yet, but the collaboration the importance of that
part of us, is as mysterious to us as the the 50 pounds in six months. of the Peter Munk Cardiac differentiation: “There’s no
solar system. Centre (PMCC) and the McEwen point making ventricular cells
“I feel better, sleep better and stopped Centre for Regenerative if the problem is atrial,” he
One of the unknowns, Dr. Billia snoring,” she says. Medicine with the Technion says. “What was absolutely
explains, is that, while there may be a Israel Institute of Technology crucial was that Lior came
genetic predisposition to developing She reads a lot to relax – Robert is making advances in heart with his clinical and heart cell
heart disease, it’s not clear whether Sanderson is a new favourite author. “I research and heart care that no expertise and stayed for a year’s
improved lifestyle at an early age can read every night before I go to bed,” she one could have imagined even sabbatical. It’s an example of
prevent onset of the disease. says. “It helps me shut down at night. five years ago. how synergy and international
It’s a necessary part of my routine.” collaboration really move the
But no matter what our genes dictate, “I never dreamed that field forward.”
she says, “we can improve longevity and She has a small, close group of friends someday I’d be sitting with
quality of life. There are things that you – “a ladies’ club. We meet once a month clinicians and cardiologists, and There’s also the challenge of
can do.” and catch up. I’m the only physician.” looking at taking cells from a developing medical devices to
petri dish and putting them in a deliver the cells to a patient’s
If you do only one thing, it’s to stop But she also admits to waking up in patient’s heart,” says biochemist heart. Technion is a world-leader
smoking, she advises. the middle of the night and thinking Dr. Gordon Keller, Director of the in biomedical engineering and
about work – “because the work is so McEwen Centre. commercialization of devices,
Dr. Billia is her own example for exciting. We have a lot on the go. You and Dr. Rubin would like Canada
lowering risks of disease that can lead to worry about keeping it all going.” What has made that possible to become more competitive in
heart failure. is the synergy of having world- that area.
Asked whether she worries that her renowned researchers and
“I decided not to get diabetes,” she research will bring the results she’s clinicians working together But there’s another reason why
says. looking for, she replies, “We’ll make it here in Toronto, where some of this research is so valuable that
work somehow.” the sickest heart patients are has nothing to do with putting
Because “diabetes is thought to be treated, says Dr. Barry Rubin, new cells in patients’ hearts.
polygenic” – that is, caused by more Who could possibly doubt it? Medical Director of the PMCC.
“We’re used to trying new It’s the perfect example of
Internationally- things.” personalized medicine.
renowned
The scientists and cardiologists We can take cells from a
cardiologist are taking the breakthrough patient’s blood, make them
and scientist, of growing heart cells from a into stem cells and transform
patient’s own blood or tissue to those cells into beating heart
Dr. Michael the next level and beyond. cells growing in a petri dish.
Gollob, and These cells have the exact same
his research “The first application is to try to genetic makeup as the patient’s
assistant Qiuju treat patients with heart failure,” own heart cells, and they are
Li, conduct says Dr. Rubin. “There are more the ideal model for assessing
experiments hospitalizations for heart failure the disease and trying different
than for all forms of cancer, drugs to see what works
to better and the average life span from best without harming or even
understand diagnosis of heart failure to involving the patient beyond
death is only 2.1 years. That is a blood test or a simple tissue
how gene worse than most cancers” sample.
mutations
change how But the challenge is growing Dr. Rubin explains: “We could
heart cells the right cells for the right part recapitulate the patient’s heart
function and of the heart and determining disease in a dish before treating
make them when and how to deliver them. the patient. Now, when we give
patients drugs for a condition,
prone to That’s where Dr. Lior Gepstein say, arrhythmia, often the first
arrythmias comes in, literally, all the way choice of drug doesn’t work,
from Israel. Working with and may have side effects.
(irregular biochemist Dr. Keller at the
heartbeats). McEwen Centre, Dr. Gepstein “Rather than trying the drug for
and the Keller team discovered the first time in the patient, we
38 how to make different types of take a sample of blood, make
heart cells. stem cells, make them into heart
cells, put the cells in 10 different
“Last year, when I came here dishes, squirt in 10 different
to Gord’s lab,” says Dr. Gepstein, drugs and see which works
“we didn’t have any idea of how best,” he explains.
to make different cells.”

Peter Munk Cardiac Centre