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UofL Gets Nearly $14M Grant To Study Heart Stem Cells

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – The University of Louisville has received a nearly $14 million grant to study a treatment for heart failure.

The university says the grant is one of the largest for medical research in the school’s history. The $13.8 million award from the National Institutes of Health is for the study of a new type of adult cardiac stem cell.

The study’s principal investigator, Dr. Robert Bolli, is studying ways to repair the heart using a patient’s own stem cells. A successful treatment would replace scar tissue with new muscle, making the heart stronger and able to pump more blood.

The funding comes after Bolli and his colleagues discovered a new population of adult stem cells, called CMCs, in the heart three years ago.