Visiting Lecturer Series – Dr. Michael Laflamme

Heart Regeneration with Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Lecture Takeaways

The main takeaways are as follows:

• Recent developments in the large-scale manufacturing of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) and their testing in small- and large-animal models of myocardial infarction
• Evidence that maturation of hPSC-CMs prior to transplantation mediates better outcomes in terms of myocardial structure, contractile efficacy, and safety

Biography

Dr. Michael Laflamme is the Robert McEwen Chair in Cardiac Regenerative Medicine, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, Senior Scientist in the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at the University Health Network (UHN), and Professor of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. He leads a research program that is focused on developing novel cardiac cell therapies based on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), and his laboratory has made a number of important contributions in this area including efficient protocols to guide hPSCs into cardiomyocytes, proof-of-concept transplantation studies with hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes in preclinical models, and the first direct demonstration that hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes can become electrically integrated and activate synchronously with host myocardium in injured hearts. Dr. Laflamme has been the recipient of honours including the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology Young Investigator Award, the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Outstanding New Investigator Award, and the UHN Inventor of the Year. Dr. Laflamme is a founding investigator of BlueRock Therapeutics, and he also practiced cardiovascular and autopsy pathology for over two decades.

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