McGill research team pioneering stem cell therapy for heart disease treatment

In the heart of the McGill University Health Centre’s research institute, Dr. Renzo Cecere and his team are revolutionizing the future of cardiac care.

Using stem cell science, the researchers are giving new hope to patients with heart disease failed by current treatments.

“We think we’ll have a major impact on the quality of life of many patients,” said Cecere, a heart surgeon.

According to Cecere, 10 to 20 per cent of patients with heart failure have arrhythmia. That means their hearts beat too fast, or too slow.

Sometimes, that can be life-threatening.

His team’s goal is to create custom cures for those patients, so they can have a regular rhythm.

“We really have this dream and this desire to be able to impact patients who have been disappointed on numerous occasions,” Cecere said.

One of the therapies they’re looking into is exposing patients to targeted low doses of radiation.

First, they take a patient’s blood, and derive stem cells from it, which they use to make heart muscle identical to that of the patient.

They even beat and contract in the same way.

The team then uses a specialized X-ray machine to expose the stem cells to radiation to see if that can stop their arrythmia.

The hope is that in the future, they can treat the patient's heart the same way.

For this work, Cecere has won $100,000 and the prestigious Trottier-Webster Innovation Award.

The McGill University Health Centre Foundation's president Marie-Helene Laramee said he's offering a lifeline to patients who have run out of options.

“They’ve been undergoing different types of treatments trying to cure their illness and it’s just not working for them so now we’re giving them hope.”

Cecere said his team is fast-tracking solutions, so patients can have answers, not in the far future, but within their lifetimes.