Platform for myocardial infarct MRI and delivery of therapeutics

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Myocardial infarction (MI) afflicts more than one million persons per year in the United States alone. MI results in permanent left ventricle (LV) scarring that causes diminished pump efficiency and, commonly, heart failure. Towards reduction or elimination of scarring, there is increasing interest in reparative biological materials, such as cells and proteins, that are introduced into the affected region of the LV early after MI. We believe that such an approach will eventually become part of a standard of care. The most promising route for the delivery of such materials is direct LV injection (DLVI). Thus far, the utility of DLVI has been hampered by the lack methods for accurate spatial targeting of affected tissue. This has greatly impeded clinical translation of promising materials. The goal of this project is to devise cutting edge imaging tools to visualize infarcted regions using MRI.