BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation supports the Center for Regenerative Medicine with a $5 million grant

South Carolina is working on the world’s first tissue-derived human heart pacemaker with the recruitment in 2008 of internationally acclaimed researcher Martin Morad, PhD.

Dr. Morad was named the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Health, a chair within the Health Sciences South Carolina-supported Center for Regenerative Medicine. The Foundation pledged $5 million to support the endowed chair, which includes a unique three-way faculty appointment at the University of South Carolina (USC), the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Clemson University.

An expert in “excitation contraction coupling,” an area of cardiac calcium signaling, Dr. Morad focuses his research on the complex interactions and signaling that regulate heart function. Working on a molecular level, his research seeks to understand the calcium signaling events that are responsible for cardiac contraction and set the heart’s rhythm and why when the heart’s calcium signaling mechanisms fail, they cause arrhythmias and death. Understanding this process may lead to new therapeutic approaches to treat congestive heart failure and other cardiac pathologies, including the possible creation of a biological pacemaker derived from genetically engineered cells.

Research in the field of biological pacemakers is rapidly growing, particularly in the area of genetically engineered cells that may help pace the heart. They are viewed as a possible alternative to electronic pacemakers that save lives, but require regular maintenance and do not readily respond to the demands of exercise and emotion.