Angiogenesis Research Center BIDMC/Harvard Medical School

Enter

The Angiogenesis Research Center, BIDMC/Harvard Medical School conducts a comprehensive research program designed to discover and understand the basic mechanisms underlying blood vessel formation in the heart and vasculature and to develop new therapies for treatment and prevention of ischemic cardiovascular disease disease. The program integrates research and development efforts in basic molecular and cell biology, pre-clinical investigations and local drug delivery with a comprehensive clinical research program thereby allowing immediate testing of promising therapeutic modalities in patients with cardiovascular disease.

The Angiogenesis Research Center (ARC) is funded by the NIH, NCRR, AHA, foundations, and unrestricted industry support. Basic research efforts are focused on elucidation of interactions between the extracellular matrix, heparin binding growth factors, inflammatory mediators and the vascular cells in initiation, maintenance, and control of blood vessel growth in mature cardiac tissue. The preclinical research program at ARC focuses on physiologic characterization of key angiogenic genes and compounds and on development of novel local delivery strategies suitable for protein or gene-based therapies using in vitro and in vivo models including fibrin and Matrigel gels, mouse Matrigel and infarct models, rabbit peripheral ischemia model and porcine ameroid constrictor and atherosclerosis models. Imaging research efforts at ARC include sophisticated image analysis of tissues as well as novel MR-based techniques aimed at visualization and characterization of tissue perfusion and collateral development in vivo.

Finally Researchers at ARC initiated the first clinical study of growth factor-induced angiogenesis in the US in patients with coronary artery disease. Since then, ARC's investigators have carried out a number of clinical studies designed to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of various growth factors in patients with advanced coronary artery disease, using standard and novel imaging modalities to assess the therapeutic potential of these agents. Additional investigations of therapeutic modalities of potential benefit to patients with advanced coronary disease included studies of cell based therapies, stem cell delivery, and myocardial regeneration.