“Three years ago, some of the work I’m doing today might have seemed like science fiction. And my participation in it would have seemed impossible, even to me.” That’s how Todd McDevitt begins his explanation of his graduate studies in tissue engineering.

Todd is working with a team of a dozen researchers on a new National Institutes of Health grant to find ways to repair heart damage.

“My work focuses on studying cardiac muscle tissue structure,” Todd says. One key question: “What types of spatial cues can we give to heart-muscle cells so they organize themselves into something like the original heart-muscle tissue?”

It’s a large question.

“Working with one type of heart muscle cell, we’ve been able to build a two-dimensional structure that morphologically resembles native tissue. We use micro-patterning to construct a protein-based matrix that ‘instructs’ muscle cells to orient themselves in a certain way. We’ve been able to build a tissue-like structure in which cells pulse or ‘beat’ similar to a living heart.”

The ultimate goal of building new heart-muscle tissue to repair and restore a damaged human heart is still a long way off.

“But there have been enormous strides in tissue engineering in recent years,” Todd says. “The real driver is progress across a number of fields—primarily cell biology. New insights in biology produce new ideas in bioengineering. The UW is a recognized leader in this type of collaborative work. There’s a strong faculty here and a wide diversity of disciplines and associated labs. Plus the proximity of the medical school. I feel very, very fortunate to be here and to be involved in the formative years of a rapidly advancing science.”

he University of Washington is unusual among research institutions in that there are really very few barriers to interdepartmental collaboration. I really enjoy the open, collegial spirit that exists here. Pat Statton’s lab, where Todd works and studies, is involved with micro-patterning and protein fabrication. I’m a pathologist interested in acquired diseases. As it turns out, all those separate disciplines can address a common project in a very effective way. Here’s another example: we’re collaborating with Steve Hauschka, a developmental biologist who understands how skeletal muscles and heart muscles develop and grow. Todd also is working with Steve, by the way. We have formed a powerful collaboration drawing on Steve’s expertise in developmental biology and to further a therapeutic strategy for damaged hearts. And we’re all collaborating in another way with Tony Blau, a hematologist who is interested in developing ways to repopulate bone marrow after a bone marrow transplant. As it happens, that work may have application in repopulating the heart with new cells after a heart attack. I am very excited because I believe some of Tony’s techniques can advance our therapeutic strategies. We’re working on a paper that describes this research and that touches on some of the possibilities. It’s all about increasing the rate of discovery and invention.

Charles E. Murry
Assistant Professor, Pathology