Dr. Cho Awarded Innovation of the Year
Millions of people experience arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats) due to heart disease, aging or congenital defects. The only medical intervention is implantation of an electronic cardiac pacemaker, which includes electrical wires fixed to the heart muscle and an electronic generator implanted under the chest skin, delivering electrical currents to stimulate the heart. Although they work well, the devices can get infected, cannot adjust the pacing rate on-demand, need battery changes, and are too big for pediatric patients.
Cho and his colleagues have envisioned hardware-free “biological pacemakers” that mimic the natural pacemaker in the heart and solve problems associated with device pacing. They have developed a gene therapy, successfully converting ordinary heart muscle into a biological pacemaker in vivo. Cho teamed up with Santangelo at Georgia Tech to deliver the gene as a messenger RNA, which sidesteps the problems associated with viral gene therapy vectors. They are anticipating a clinical trial in which the biological pacemakers will serve as adjuncts to electronic devices for patients with temporary pacing needs. If successful, the initial trial could open the door to a $5 billion (and growing) global pacemaker industry.
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