Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation Collaborates with Other Minnesota Health Care Providers

The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation at Abbott Northwestern Hospital has partnered with three Minnesota health care providers to create the Minnesota Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Clinical Research Network (MnCTN), which recently received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to research stem cell treatments for heart disease.

In addition to the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, MnCTN comprises the University of Minnesota Division of Cardiology, the Center for Cardiovascular Repair, and the Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics lab; Hennepin County Medical Center; and the Veterans Administration Medical Center.

MnCTN is one of five organizations across the country selected to receive the grant and participate in the NIH Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network.

The network was created to facilitate clinical trials to examine the success of cell therapies for the treatment of heart conditions including heart attacks and heart failure.

"We’re excited and optimistic about the opportunity to work with these outstanding organizations to promote the evaluation of novel cell therapy strategies for people with cardiovascular disease," said Timothy Henry, MD, principal investigator for MnCTN, a cardiologist and director of research for the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

"I envision MnCTN playing a key role in moving cutting-edge research forward."

Specific areas of research the MnCTN has proposed examining include using bone marrow-derived stem cells to initiate cardiac repair following a heart attack and using patients’ own stem cells to treat heart failure.