Telescope Therapeutics, Maria Del Toro: “Exploring iPSC-Derived Organoids: Leveraging Patient-Derived Models and Biosensor Technologies for Phenotypic Clustering and Signaling Analysis in Cardiovascular Disease”

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death in Canada and is a progressive disease characterized by heart dilatation and impaired heart function
that can ultimately lead to heart failure, with a rising incidence and a 5-year survival rate of only 50%. Advanced cases of heart failure caused by dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are referred for mechanical circulatory support and/or heart transplantation. We are trying to generate a “Heart-in-a-Dish”, allowing us to model disease and test treatments in a large group of
patients with diagnosed cardiovascular disease. This will provide an opportunity to personalize treatments for a range of clinically important cardiovascular diseases. Our primary aims are to
develop a “bedside to bench to bedside” path for cardiovascular disease modelling and to generate tools to evaluate pharmacologic and functional profiles in physiologically relevant
systems in the context of heart disease. From blood samples, we can 1) generate and validate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generate cardiomyocytes and other relevant cell types in the heart and 2) characterize functional properties of cardiomyocytes as the disease progresses or in response to therapeutic intervention.

Faculty Supervisor:

Roman Krawetz

Student:

Partner:

Stem Cell Network;Telescope Therapeutics

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Calgary

Program: