Predicting radiation-related heart damage with patient stem cells
Official title: Modeling Susceptibility to Radiation Therapy-induced Cardiotoxicity Using Cell Village iPSCs
Funded at Stanford University · NIH-11231257 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Using stem cells made from people who had cancer, researchers seek to understand why some patients' hearts are harmed by radiation and to find existing drugs that might protect them.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Stanford University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Stanford, United States) |
| Project start | December 1, 2023 |
| Project end | November 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $667,252 |
| NIH project number | 5R01HL171102-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11231257 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are people treated with radiation for cancer (especially breast cancer) who are willing to donate blood or tissue samples for stem cell generation.
✕Less likely to help
People without a history of cancer radiation exposure or those seeking immediate clinical treatment (rather than sample donation) are unlikely to get direct benefit from this lab-focused work.
What this research studies
If I donate blood or tissue, the team will turn my cells into stem cells and then into heart and blood-vessel cells to see how radiation affects them. They'll compare molecular and genetic differences across 250 donors (mostly cancer patients) to find why some people are more sensitive to radiation-related heart damage. The project also uses engineered human heart tissues and mouse models for deeper testing and runs a large screen of 5,000 FDA-approved drugs to find ones that reduce damage in the lab-grown tissues. Results could link genetic risk markers to medicines that might be repurposed to protect patients' hearts during radiation therapy.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could identify genetic markers of risk and point to already-approved drugs that reduce heart damage from radiation.
How similar studies have gone: Related studies have used patient iPSCs and engineered heart tissues to model treatment-related heart injury and test drugs, but combining a large, genetically diverse donor set with multi-omics and a 5,000-drug repurposing screen is relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
-
Stanford University
Stanford, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Wu, Joseph C. — Stanford University
- Study coordinator: Wu, Joseph C.
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
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Understanding how radiation therapy affects heart health in cancer patients
This study is looking into why some cancer patients experience heart issues after radiation treatment, using special lab techniques to understand the genetic factors involved and to test ways to protect the heart, all with the aim of making radiation therapy safer for everyone.
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Understanding heart risks from radiation therapy in lung cancer patients
This study is looking at how radiation therapy for lung cancer might affect your heart, and it aims to find ways to tell which patients might be more at risk for heart problems, so we can help keep you safer during treatment.
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Effects of radiation therapy on heart health in breast cancer patients
This study is looking at how different types of radiation therapy for breast cancer might affect heart health, so we can find out which method is safer for your heart while you’re being treated.
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Dual targeting of heart cell receptors to prevent chemotherapy heart damage
Atrial patients receiving the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin may be protected from heart damage by targeting two heart cell receptors at once.
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Protecting small blood vessels from radiation by boosting mitochondrial health
It aims to prevent radiation-related damage to tiny blood vessels and reduce later thinking and memory problems in people who get radiation therapy by protecting cell mitochondria.
-
Genetic clues for doxorubicin heart risk using patient-derived heart cells
A research project tests how human heart cells grown from stem cells react to a common chemotherapy to see which genetic differences may raise the risk of heart damage.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.