The Power of Hope

Heart disease today is much more treatable than it used to be, and impressive new gains are on the near horizon. One source of hope, ironically, is that we’re learning just how complicated the disease really is.

The most common form of the ailment used to be seen as a kind of plumbing problem: cholesterol and other substances accumulate in the arteries around the heart; a clot suddenly blocks a key vessel; the heart suffers serious, even lethal damage.

Arterial bottle-necks and roaming blood clots are in fact critically important. But it’s also clear that the slow build-up to serious heart-attack risk involves complex interactions among many players–and that not all are “outsiders” like cholesterol.

Thus, scientists are learning that blood vessels play a key part in keeping themselves healthy through a complicated interplay among many different natural agents secreted by cells. When something throws this machinery out of balance, the result can be what many scientists now think is an inflammation–the vessels in effect struggling to heal themselves. If this goes on too long, it can lead to lasting and potentially dangerous artery problems.

The idea that the ailment is heavily influenced by activities involving DNA and individual cells opened the way for a bigger heart-disease role for MIT, with its proven leadership in basic biology. The Institute is in fact one of four U.S. universities that serve as federally funded Centers of Excellence in the Molecular Biology of Heart Disease, giving them special responsibilities in both teaching and research.

Developments in engineering have also helped boost the Institute’s role in heart-related research. “There’s been an explosion in the field of biomedical engineering over the past five years,” notes Roger Kamm, a mechanical engineering professor who’s himself involved in heart-disease studies. The evolving state of heart-disease research has led to a wide range of efforts in the field at MIT. Here’s a limited sample.

by Richard Anthony Next »

On Topic: health science+technology