A Path to Precision Cardiac Medicine
October 25, 2016 | Terry Sharrer
About 30% of drugs in clinical trials are withdrawn because of safety issues, several of which present with heart damage. This observation encouraged Stanford University researchers to grow cardiomyocytes from patients’ induced pluripotent stem cells. These patients had known predispositions to heart problems. The researchers then exposed those cells to two drugs and carried out transcriptome profiling for toxicity. After they found a targetable gene expression, they used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to make a metabolic pathway correction that prevented the toxicity. MORE
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