Generation of heart field-specific progenitor cells from pluripotent stem cells

Unmet Need:
Heart disease, the number one killer, frequently occurs in a chamber-restricted fashion. While patient-derived pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offer unprecedented opportunities to treat and repair damaged hearts, iPSC-derived heart cells are highly heterogeneous, and it remains unknown if chamber-specific heart cells can be induced and isolated. As such, there is a need to develop a technology to generate chamber-specific heart cells from stem cells.
 
Technology Overview:
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a novel method to produce, identify, and isolate cardiac progenitors giving rise to left and right ventricular cells from pluripotent stem cells. Investigators have identified the expression of specific surface proteins that identify and isolate these populations using a 3D cardiac organoid system. The isolation of these specific cell populations will allow for chamber-specific disease modeling, drug discovery studies, and cell-based therapeutics. 
 
Stage of Development:
Cellular and molecular data is available.
 
Publications:
Andersen, P., et al. "Precardiac Organoids Form Two Heart Fields Via Bmp/Wnt Signaling." Nature Communications, vol. 9, no. 1, 2018. PMCID: PMC6081372  DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05604-8
 

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