Research at the Heart, Lung & Blood Center

The Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute is an autonomous nonprofit research facility dedicated to advancing medical research that may pave the way for new treatments, early detection, and prevention programs for chronic heart, lung, and blood disorders. Our Institute is currently exploring working relations with scientists working in each of these areas.

All of our efforts are ultimately designed to inform patients—and to facilitate access to the best treatment options—about malignant pleural mesothelioma and other degenerative diseases of the lungs, blood, and heart.

HEART DISEASE

The Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute addresses heart disease, the leading cause of death in American men and women, through web-based user-friendly education. In addition, the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute recently established the Pacific Heart Center with an initial goal of investigating the feasibility of stem cells to target cardiac diseases. While scientists have been using stem cells to treat mesothelioma, lung cancer, and possibly other cancers, stem cells also have recently garnered attention as a possible therapeutic approach to heart diseases. Consequently, the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute is strengthening relationships with researchers engaged in both basic and clinical biomedical research utilizing stem cells to treat cardiac diseases.

LUNG DISEASES

Mesothelioma is a relatively rare medical condition, but lung disease overall is the second leading cause of death among Americans. Some of the cutting-edge therapeutic models that the Pacific Meso Center is evaluating for malignant pleural mesothelioma may shed new light on innovative therapeutic approaches to treating lung cancer and thymic carcinoma, also a rare cancer.

In addition, the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute is assessing safety and efficacy data on novel treatments for bronchitis, a common respiratory condition, with a goal toward sponsoring research on promising new drugs in the future. Chronic bronchitis not only has a high mortality rate, but it also increases the risk of developing lung infections and even lung cancer. Our preventive educational campaign to reduce the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), including bronchitis, may have an additional benefit of potentially diminishing the risk for lung cancer.

BLOOD DISORDERS

In response to the growing prevalence of anemia in and outside the United States, the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute will be investigating in the near future, new treatments for anemia, a serious condition caused by abnormally low red blood cell counts or low hemoglobin levels. The Institute is evaluating the feasibility of novel therapies such as tissue engineering and artificial blood as a therapeutic intervention for anemia. There is an urgent need for safe and effective blood substitutes that are rapidly available for patients on the operating table, in accidents, or afflicted with acute or chronic anemia.