Research and Development
The research activities of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery are currently focused on major patient care issues inherent to cardiovascular medicine and include: heart and lung transplantation, vascular biology, the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cutting edge techniques in heart surgery in both children and adults. The ultimate goal of our research is designed to provide a better understanding of the nature of important cardiovascular diseases and the eventual application of this knowledge to our clinical programs.
The overall departmental research activity can be divided into four general categories:
- Examination of the nature of the host response to organ transplantation
- Genetic and biochemical approaches to modification of blood vessels to prevent and ameliorate disease
- Development of techniques for reducing the impact of heart surgery on the patient
- Testing of new artificial approaches to the repair of cardiovascular injuries
Each of these areas address important and relevant clinical problems that limit our current ability to provide effective and safe medical therapy to large groups of patients with a broad range of cardiovascular diseases.
The Division of Research is supervised under the direction of Donald V. Cramer, PhD. The Division provides basic and large animal research support for the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.
The research facilities of the Division consist of approximately 4000 sq. ft. of research and administrative space located on the main medical school campus and at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The research space consists of:
- basic laboratory facilities
- offices
- tissue culture facilities
- vivarium
- operating facility
- equipment rooms
- cold room
- storage areas
- conference facilities
The laboratory was recently equipped with instruments capable of supporting basic research activities in:
- microsurgery
- minimally invasive surgery
- tissue culture
- immunology
- biochemistry
- molecular biology
- large animal physiology
The research programs now in progress in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery represent the application of highly advanced medical technology to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. These research activities provide the foundation for the future development of new therapeutic strategies for treatment of a broad range of cardiovascular diseases.
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