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Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute
DisclosuresThe process to grow the cardiac-derived stem cells involved in the study was developed by Dr. Marbán when he was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. The university has filed for a patent on that intellectual property, and has licensed it to a company in which Dr. Marbán has a financial interest. No funds from that company were used to support the clinical study. All funding was derived from the National Institutes of Health, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. For more information, visit www.cedars-sinai.edu.
Dr. Eduardo Marbán, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, is an international leader in cardiology and a pioneering heart researcher.
His 20-plus years of patient care as well as his research into how the heart works on the molecular and cellular levels, and how heart disease progresses, have led to key discoveries in gene and stem cell therapies and new drug treatments for heart attacks, heart failure and strokes. Those discoveries resulted in inventions and patents that have formed the basis for three startup companies.
In 2007, Dr. Marbán became director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, which brings together cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, imaging specialists and researchers to foster discovery and enhance patient care. The institute is built on a long tradition of excellence and innovation, including the invention of the Swan-Ganz catheter and development of a laser system to vaporize blockages in blood vessels affected by coronary artery disease. The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is ranked among the best in the nation by US News & World Report.
Dr. Marbán also directs Cedars-Sinai's Specialized Center for Cell-based Therapy, a National Institutes of Health-sponsored research program in stem cells. It is the only such center in the U.S. to be focused on cardiac regeneration. Using techniques that he has pioneered to isolate stem cells from a patient's own heart, Dr. Marbán received FDA approval for a Phase I clinical trial which begin in mid-2009. In that study, patients diagnosed with heart disease or heart attacks will receive infusions of their own heart stem cells. The study is part of a long-term effort to determine whether stem cell therapy can repair damage to the heart muscle caused by heart attacks.
Dr. Marbán also serves as editor of Circulation Research, an American Heart Association (AHA) journal which is the leading peer-review publication for basic cardiovascular science. His work there was recently recognized with the AHA's Award of Meritorious Achievement, which is given to mark a unique accomplishment, or an important contribution to AHA national programs.
Among the many honors Dr. Marbán has received over the years: the Basic Research Prize of the AHA, the Research Achievement Award of the International Society for Heart Research, the Gill Heart Institute Award and the Distinguished Service Award of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the AHA.
A native of Cuba, Dr. Marbán came to the United States with his parents at the age of six as a political refugee. He earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Wilkes College in Pennsylvania, and then attended the Yale University School of Medicine in a combined MD/PhD program.
Dr. Marbán came to Cedars-Sinai after 25 years at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. During his tenure there, he served in a variety of academic and research positions, including chief of cardiology and director of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Cardiovascular Clinical Research, a program focused on identifying novel risk factors for sudden cardiac death.