Cardiogene Therapeutics: Making an Impact on Heart Disease
As a University of Michigan research scientist, physician Elizabeth G. Nabel specialized in vascular biology. Her husband and medical colleague Dr. Gary J. Nabel focused on virology and immunology. As Elizabeth recalls, "In the mid-1980s, it occurred to us that we could merge these two technologies in our research." They did. And it wasn't long before the Nabels had combined catheter technology and gene delivery technology into a unique protocol for treating heart disorders such as atherosclerosis, arrhythmia, heart failure, and instent restenosis-the scarring and subsequent blocking of blood vessels following stenting and angioplasty. Their subsequent experiments offered proof of concept that recombinant genes could be delivered directly to the walls of blood vessels using existing angioplasty catheters and stents, the devices used to prop open coronary arteries.
By the 1990s, the Nabels were collaborating with Harvard physician and scientist Dr. Jeffrey M. Leiden, a former UM colleague. In 1994, working closely with UM Tech Transfer, the three researchers founded CardioGene. Ultimately, the company's technology platform grew to include proprietary delivery systems, devices and vectors-biological transport mechanisms for local delivery of therapeutic genes. In June, 1998, CardioGene was acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC), a leader in the medical device industry.
In 1999, the Nabels left Ann Arbor for appointments with the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. Both of them look back on their work with UM Tech Transfer as a "remarkable experience" in which they learned to bridge the gap between lab and clinic.
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