This new biomimetic culture system mimics the environment of a living organ through continuous electrical stimulation and oxygenation, maintaining viability and functionality of the heart segments for six days. Previous culture systems maintained functional heart slices for no more than 24 hours. The extended viability time will enable improved preclinical testing of new drugs for effectiveness and toxicity.

“This new method maintains fully functional human heart slices for six days in the culture environment. This facilitates testing efficacy of heart failure therapeutics and cardiotoxins on human heart tissue with no need for a living human,” said Tamer M. A. Mohamed, PhD, who led the research.

The system provides access to the complete 3D multicellular system that reflects the heart’s functional and structural condition in a living person.

“This system will save time and costs of clinical trials during phase one research, which includes testing for toxicity and proof of efficacy,” Mohamed said. “In addition to drugs, we have demonstrated the system’s effectiveness in testing gene therapy.”

The optimized medium for sustaining the heart tissue slices is described in an article published online last week in , a publication of the American Heart Association. It will appear in the August 30, 2019, print and online issue. Along with Mohamed, the research was conducted by Qinghui Ou, BSc, Riham R.E. Abouleisa, PhD, and others at UofL, along with colleagues in California, Colorado, the United Kingdom, Germany and Egypt. UofL has a provisional patent application on this technology.

The annual Outstanding Investigator Award, one of the society’s highest and most prestigious, recognizes a scientist who is making major and independent contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular science, and is leading a growing research program likely to play a major role in the future.

Jones is a senior faculty member at UofL’s and a professor at the . A goal of his research is to understand the mechanisms of cardiac muscle damage during a heart attack, and to develop novel therapeutics to preserve the heart. He also is investigating the confounding influence of risk factors, such as diabetes, on the development of heart disease, and the molecular explanations of ventricular remodeling and heart failure.

Jones was chosen by an international panel of experts from among some of the best scientists in the world. The winner presents a major lecture and receives a $1,500 honorarium and plaque. Jones delivered his lecture Tuesday morning at the meeting, which is taking place July 16-19 at in Amsterdam. The meeting is focused on basic and translational research in cardiology. The topic of his lecture was “Non-catabolic Fates of Glucose in the Heart.”

The International Society for Heart Research, which has 3,000 members on five continents, is an international organization devoted to promoting cardiovascular research. It is dedicated to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge in cardiovascular science worldwide, and publishes the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology.

The Outstanding Investigator Award was created by UofL researcher , when he served as the society’s secretary general nearly two decades ago. Bolli is the director of UofL’s Institute of Molecular Cardiology and scientific director of UofL’s . He is also a professor and chief of the at UofL. The award is for established investigators in the intermediate phase of their academic career.

“The roster of previous recipients for the Outstanding Investigator Award is simply amazing,” Bolli said. “We are proud of Steven, and grateful for his support in the research mission of the Institute of Molecular Cardiology here at UofL. He has been one of my best recruits ever.”

Jones serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Basic Research in Cardiology, and Circulation Research. Since 2012, Dr. Jones also has been associate/consulting editor for the American Journal of Physiology — Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

He regularly serves on editorial boards and review panels for the and the . He recently started a term as chairperson of the Myocardial Ischemia and Metabolism Study Section of the NIH’s . In addition to Jones, the study section consists of 18 experts from around the U.S.

Jones received his doctorate in physiology in 2002 from Louisiana State University. After graduation, he joined Johns Hopkins University, where he focused on mitochondrial function with the goal of developing a deeper understanding of the metabolism-dependent mechanisms of cell death and survival. He came to UofL in 2004.

“As we end American Heart Month, it’s the perfect time to share this wonderful news,” said Mark Slaughter, MD, surgical director of heart transplant for University of Louisville Physicians and Jewish Hospital, and professor and chair, Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, UofL School of Medicine.

Dr. Slaughter performed the 500^th transplant on Feb. 21, on a 59-year-old man who had a left ventricular assist device implanted to support his heart until the donor heart was available for transplant. An LVAD is a surgically implanted mechanical pump attached to the heart.

The first heart transplant at the hospital, which was also the first heart transplant in Kentucky, took place on Aug. 24, 1984, performed by the University of Louisville’s Laman Gray Jr., MD. The state and region waited in suspense as 40-year-old Alice Brandenburg received a new heart. The surgery, which took seven hours, was groundbreaking at the time. The UofL and Jewish Hospital transplant team is one of the leading providers of organ transplantation in the country.

“Jewish Hospital is a place where miracles happen every day and patients’ lives are changed forever,” said Ronald Waldridge II, MD, president of Jewish Hospital. “Five-hundred hearts is much more than a milestone. It represents the life-changing impact on our patients, their families and the entire region. Together, with UofL, Jewish Hospital’s Trager Transplant Center is investing in research, technology and advance procedures to increase access to transplant services.”

On Wednesday, doctors and heart transplant recipients gathered at the Jewish Hospital Rudd Heart and Lung Center to celebrate the 500^th milestone and the many lives that have been saved over the years thanks to heart transplantation.��

“The 500^th heart transplant is a reminder of the commitment by Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville to provide advanced therapies for patients with advanced heart failure,” Slaughter. said. “We’ve come a long way since Dr. Gray broke ground with that first heart transplant more than 30 years ago. Every day, we continue to advance the science of heart transplantation here at UofL and Jewish Hospital. I’m excited about the future of this program, and I’m confident that we’ll mark a lot more milestones over the next 30 years.”

For Dr. Gray, Wednesday’s celebration marked decades of dedication to the heart transplant program.

“After performing the first heart transplant, it means a lot to me to see the 500^th and where we are today,” Gray said.��

Gray continues to research new ways to help patients with heart disease at UofL’s Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, a center focused on bio-adaptive heart innovations, including the integration of heart-assist device, biodfeedback sensors and related technologies. In 2001, Gray and the Trager-UofL surgical team implanted the first fully implantable replacement heart, the AbioCor.

Today, patients like Jeffrey McMahan continue to benefit from the heart transplant program. McMahan was the center’s 479^th heart transplant, and he attended the celebration on Wednesday along with other recipients.

Before his heart transplant, McMahan, 61, was no stranger to the procedure – it had helped save many of his family members. The Memphis, Indiana, resident had four family members receive heart transplants – two by University of Louisville surgeons at Jewish Hospital. In 2015, McMahan learned he, too, needed one.

“I was serving in the military at Fort Knox when I developed a cough,” said McMahan. “It finally got bad enough that doctors flew me to Jewish Hospital, where I was diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart muscle is weakened. I learned that I would need a transplant in the next 10 years, but that timeframe quickly changed to 10 months after my condition worsened.”

On Aug. 15, 2015, McMahan was added to the organ donor transplant list. A month later, he received the transplant that forever changed his life.

“I wouldn’t have lived without the transplant,” McMahan said. “It means a lot to be here to celebrate the 500^th. I’m forever thankful to the transplant team that helped save my life and gave me more time with family.”

It has been an exciting year for the Jewish Hospital Trager Transplant Center and University of Louisville team. In December 2017, the center – a joint program with the UofL School of Medicine and KentuckyOne Health – broke its all-time record for number of organs transplanted in the center’s 53-year history, with 175 organs transplanted in a year. The center also achieved several other milestones in 2017, including its 5,000^th transplanted organ, its 3,000^th kidney transplant and its 900^th liver transplant. In addition to Kentucky’s first heart transplant, the program is known for performing Kentucky’s first adult pancreas, heart-lung and liver transplants.

But the 500^th heart transplant and other milestones wouldn’t have been reached without organ donors, noted David Lewis, director of Transplant Services at the Jewish Hospital Trager Transplant Center.

“We often encourage people to sign up as organ donors to help save lives. The need for organ donors is unfortunately greater than the number of people who donate, so each day, an average of 20 people pass away while waiting for a transplant in the United States,” Lewis said. “Knowing that we have helped save 500 people in need of a new heart is a wonderful feeling, and it would not be possible without the donors and their families.”

Video of the first heart transplant at Jewish Hospital is .����

From the ecology of the rainforest canopy to the promise of astrosurgery to an arts-based approach to improving community health, UofL projects are among the highlights of the first ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival in the Washington, D.C. museum’s west wing Oct. 13-15. Virginia Tech is presenting the festival with the Smithsonian.            

The festival showcases “creative exploration and research at the nexus of science, engineering, arts and design” among the 15 participating ACC schools, according to the festival . Organizers project as many as 30,000 visitors could attend during the weekend.

“I think it certainly shows that we have work going on here that has huge public impact,” said Paul DeMarco, associate dean of UofL’s School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies and a professor of psychological and brain sciences. DeMarco, who plans to attend, organized UofL’s involvement and oversaw the proposal process for the student-faculty teams involved.

Although the ACC is known widely for athletic achievements, “the intent here is to show these schools have research and work that’s being done by faculty, staff and students,” DeMarco said. “It was important for us to get the students involved.”

The festival will offer 15 dramatic and musical performances, including the 4 p.m. Oct. 14 performance about the intersection of art and public health by . The project leader is graduate student Tasha Golden, a former touring songwriter who directs the Center for Art + Health Innovation within the Commonwealth Institute of Kentucky, an entity of UofL’s School of Public Health and Information Sciences. The multidisciplinary presentation of works that reveal how arts address environmental and social toxins will include Smoketown poet Hannah Drake and Justin Golden.

Biologist Steve Yanoviak from the College of Arts and Sciences and George Pantalos, bioengineering and surgery professor with UofL’s Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, will be featured with their students in interactive exhibits and also as Oct. 14 panelists on the general theme of “Interdisciplinary Thinking and Collaboration.” There are 48 total exhibits.

Pantalos and students Audrey Riggs and Justin Heidel will exhibit two projects: the pediatric cardiovascular simulator designed to train critical care pediatric hospital staff and a joint UofL and Carnegie Mellon project intended to help treat trauma and other disorders surgically in reduced gravity during space missions. Pantalos’ Oct. 14 talk (12:30 p.m. panel on health and body) will focus on the KardioKid.

Yanoviak, whose panel on environment and sustainability begins at 4 p.m., will exhibit with students Max Adams and Evan Gora about their work on the examining forest structure, lightning and insect diversity. The collaboration with other scientists from various disciplines is done primarily at the Barro Colorado Island field station in Panama administered by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.  

The museum site for the ACCelerate Festival is on the National Mall on Constitution Avenue between Twelfth and Fourteenth streets NW. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday.

The group was a part of the Innovative Partnership Program (IPP) created through XPRIZE and Singularity University in alliance with Deloitte. According to IPP program director Sean Watson, the goal of the two-day tour is to help senior business executives from leading companies explore the future of manufacturing and product development, as well as discover new ecosystems and partnerships that they can tap into to thrive in the emerging agile manufacturing paradigm.��

“As we looked at the lay of the land in manufacturing, we saw that Louisville was doing some really special things and a lot of it centered around the capabilities of the university,” Watson said. “We wanted to expose these companies to an industrial ecosystem outside Silicon Valley – the places you typically think of as centers of innovation in the world – and to introduce them to places doing dynamic things and are emerging as new centers and new ‘brain belts’.”

While the tour was created for informational and educational purposes, UofL Senior Director of Research Support & Development William A. Metcalf says he is hoping that the exposure will lead to additional public-private partnerships.

“Hopefully, they see some of the exciting things happening here and want to get involved, whether that’s research or to co-locate here and hire our students,” Metcalf said. “We’re not selling anything today, per se, but we’re talking about what we do. Hopefully, they find that interesting and want to be a part of it.”

More photos from the tour are .��

“The value of such lectures comes from both the person in whose name the lecture is delivered and the content of the lecture itself,” said Malcolm DeCamp, MD, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern University. DeCamp delivered the fifth annual Laman A. Gray Jr., MD, Lecture in December, organized by UofL’s Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. The lecture is named to honor the long-time UofL cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered mechanical hearts and devices and now serves as executive and medical director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute.

“A lecture such as the Laman Gray Lecture provides an opportunity to invite a thought leader in a specific field to provide enrichment to a community of providers they may not have access to,” DeCamp said. “Invited lecturers provide a different perspective, new knowledge and a cross-pollination of thought and ideas. They broaden the horizons of practitioners, trainees and students and give them a glimpse of things coming down the road.”

A former Louisvillian who earned his medical degree at UofL in 1983, DeCamp said he was honored to give a lecture named for Gray.

“I grew up there (in Louisville) and know him. He represents the surgeon-scientist-engineer and is known for trying to think of engineering ways to reverse the problems caused by disease,” DeCamp said. “The Cardiovascular Innovation Institute is a bricks-and-mortar testament to the promise he created.

“We physicians all like doctoring and taking care of patients, but he adds the dimension of scientist to it.”

DeCamp’s lecture, “Interventions for Emphysema: Beyond Best Medical Care,” examined the current state of treatments for the disease. While lung volume reduction surgery has been shown to help patients live longer and have a better quality of life, the procedure isn’t as well known among practitioners and therefore isn’t recommended as much as perhaps it should be, he said.

“A 1,200-patient study found that significant patient improvement was durable five years after surgery,” DeCamp said. “Several non-surgical procedures currently show promise but they are as yet unproven. Why don’t we support procedures of excellent efficacy?”

It is a message that Mark Slaughter, MD, chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, believes is important to hear.��

“Staying abreast of the latest data and research is imperative in the field of cardiovascular surgery,” Slaughter said. “Events such as the Laman Gray Lecture and speakers who have the credentials of a Malcolm Decamp constitute one important way in which we can help educate our students, residents, faculty and referring physicians on the latest advances and can then translate that knowledge into best practices for our patients.”

The Laman A. Gray Lecture is supported by a generous gift from Hank and Donna Wagner.

Roberto Bolli, MD, director of the University of Louisville Institute of Molecular Cardiology, announced today that a new research trial funded by NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the CONCERT-HF Study, is now open to enroll patients. The study is a Phase II, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the safety, feasibility and efficacy of two types of adult stem cells used alone and in combination in patients with heart failure.

In addition to UofL, the study centers are Stanford University, the University of Miami, Indiana University, the Texas Heart Institute, the University of Florida and the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. The School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will serve as the data coordinating center.

In the study, two types of stem cells will be studied. Both are known as “autologous” stem cells because they come from the same patient in whom they are returned. The two types of adult stem cells used are autologous mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and c-kit+ cardiac stem cells (CSCs). MSCs will be manufactured from the patients’ own bone marrow while CSCs will be manufactured from the patients’ own heart tissue.

Bolli, who also serves as scientific director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute at UofL, is a pioneer in research using adult stem cells for cardiac disease. In the landmark 2011 SCIPIO trial, he and his research team were the first to successfully show the safety and potential efficacy of autologous c-kit+ stem cells taken via cardiac biopsy from patients who had suffered a previous heart attack.

SCIPIO enrolled 20 stem cell-treated patients with heart failure at UofL; four of the 20 patients discontinued the trial. Although definitive conclusions cannot be made because of the small number of patients, the results suggest a remarkable efficacy of autologous cardiac stem cells. After one year, the 16 patients in the study showed a 40 percent increase in the amount of blood their hearts were pumping. Moreover, MRIs in some patients showed significantly less dead heart tissue after the trial therapy, suggesting that the adult stem cell therapy was regenerative in nature.

Bolli practices with UofL Physicians. His success with the SCIPIO trial and his overall body of work, comprising more than 30 years of cardiac research, led to his successful grant application to establish a (CCTRN) center at UofL. This consortium of leading cardiovascular research organizations is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and conducts early clinical trials of adult stem cell therapies in patients with cardiovascular disease.

“I continue to believe that adult stem cells could be the greatest advancement in cardiovascular medicine in my lifetime,” Bolli said. “CONCERT-HF is very important because it will help determine whether c-kit cardiac stem cells are effective and whether combining two stem cell types is more effective than giving one cell type alone.”