On Feb. 12, Stephanie Protze, a scientist at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network (UHN), and a Medicine by Design New Investigator, appeared on CTV News to speak about her biological pacemaker research with anchor and reporter Angie Seth.

Protze’s research focuses on biological pacemaker cells, which can cause the heart to have a too slow rhythm when they are damaged.

“Our goal is to replace these damaged cells with new functional cells to create the first biological pacemaker that then functions without the wires and batteries that an electronic pacemaker requires, and potentially could be a lifelong cure for patients with pacemaker issues,” she said.

Protze joined the University Health Network and University of Toronto (U of T) in 2018 in a recruitment supported by Medicine by Design. In addition to her primary UHN appointment, Protze is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at U of T.

Watch the full interview on CTV

 

Angie Seth:
Incredible research is underway at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at the University Health Network. It centres around heart health and the creation of the first ever biological pacemaker that once inserted would regulate a person’s heart rhythm. Dr. Stephanie Protze joins me now. She’s a scientist at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at the University Health Network. Talk to me about this research.

Stephanie Protze:
Thanks for having me. So we basically want to treat patients that have a two slow heart rhythm. And naturally the heart rhythm is regulated by a set of specialized cells that reside in the heart called pacemaker cells. And in patients that have a too slow heart rhythm, those cells are damaged. And our goal is to replace these damaged cells with new functional cells and to create, as you mentioned, the first biological pacemaker that then functions without the wires or the batteries that an electronic pacemaker requires, and potentially therefore could be really a lifelong cure for patients with pacemaker issues.

Angie Seth:
It sounds like this would be a huge game changer. Heart health is a big, ongoing issue for so many people, so many communities as well. So, as you say there, this could be a permanent solution in so far that you don’t need to have that pacemaker changed, the batteries changed, etcetera. So what does this means for health heart repair, longevity?

Stephanie Protze:
Yeah. So let me touch a little bit on the electronic pacemakers there. They’re obviously great lifesavers for those patients that have a too slow heart rhythm, but they come with a couple of issues. And relatively high complication risk. They can get infected and it’s a battery driven device. So patients actually every five to 10 years need to replace the batteries. And they also, if you think about children, kids can be born with too slow heart rhythm, and they have a small heart. We can put in an electronic pacemaker, but as their heart grows the, the electric device doesn’t adjust to their heart. On top of all of that, we know, patients with an electric device, in a subset of these patients, they develop heart failure because of the way that the heart is activated through the electronic pacemaker. And our goal is with this biological pacemaker to basically overcome all of these disadvantages, because a biological pacemaker should just naturally integrate with your heart. It’ll grow with the heart of children, it’ll naturally pace the heart as the pacemaker does, and should not lead to things like heart failure.

Angie Seth:
And I’m glad that you point out, we’re not just talking about adults, we’re talking about kids as well, because there have been some incredible lifesaving surgeries that have had to be performed on, on infants just hours after being born because of what their situation might be. What’s the timeframe on this right now in terms of where you are in making this a reality?

Stephanie Protze:
Yeah. So a bit of background. How we do this is we actually, to get those functional cells to replace the cells in the body and have something we can transplant, we need to generate those functional cells. And we do this from stem cells. And it took us about five years to develop that in my lab with my team at UHN and also with supports through U of T and Medicine by Design. And now we have those cells in the Petri dish and we are currently testing them in the lab and to see if they can function as a biological pacemaker. And we have very promising results that we are excited about. So our next step now is to move to preclinical models. And that will be larger animal models to see if these cells, when we transplant them, can really safely regulate the heartbeat without any unwanted side effects before we can actually move towards applying for clinical trials. So you see, it’s a long journey, but it’s a promising one. And we’re thinking maybe in 10 years we can go towards clinical trials.

Angie Seth:
You’re getting there. Indeed. And we’d love to continue to follow it. Doctor, thank you so much for this, Dr. Stephanie Protze is a scientist with the University Health Network. Thank you again for this. Thank you.

Note: This transcript is AI generated.

 

About Medicine by Design and regenerative medicine

Medicine by Design builds on decades of made-in-Canada excellence in regenerative medicine dating back to the discovery of stem cells in the early 1960s by Toronto researchers James Till and Dr. Ernest McCulloch. Medicine by Design is made possible thanks in part to a $114-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Regenerative medicine uses stem cells to replace diseased tissues and organs, creating therapies in which cells are the biological product. It can also mean triggering stem cells that are already present in the human body to repair damaged tissues or to modulate immune responses. Increasingly, regenerative medicine researchers are using a stem cell lens to identify critical interactions or defects that prepare the ground for disease, paving the way for new approaches to preventing disease before it starts.