Heart and Lung Disorders

Discover what’s possible

Read these stories to find out more about the impact of University of Minnesota research, education, and care—and how you can help.

Fall 2009

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have made recent advances in early detection, prevention, and risk reduction related to lung-damaging conditions such as cancer and pulmonary fibrosis.

The Center for Lung Science and Health
serves as the Uof M’s interdisciplinary home for lung research, education, and public outreach. One facet of the center’s mission is to promote and enhance research education and training opportunities in lung science and health.

Major grant funds stem cell research collaboration

Most major medical discoveries don’t happen in a single lab; they result from close collaboration across multiple institutions, often over many years. That’s why it was big news when University of Minnesota researchers learned in October that they had received a seven-year collaboration grant to help develop the high-potential field of stem cell therapy.

Great expectations

These leading researchers at the University’s Stem Cell Institute along with others performing stem cell research across the campus may hold in their Petri dishes the keys to unlocking the mysteries of diabetes, cancer, heart failure, brain injury — even aging.

Summer 2009

New $8.4 million grant funds study of a deadly lung disease

University of Minnesota researchers in the Medical School’s Center for Lung Science and Health (CLSH) received an $8.4 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to study a deadly chronic lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF.

Spring 2009

A cause for collaboration

It's not all that common for a multi-institution group of physicians, scientists, and medical device manufacturers to get together and talk about how to best solve complex medical problems. But thanks to a University of Minnesota symposium series, these conversations are flourishing.

Keeping failing hearts pumping

For hundreds of people, the University's world-renowned ventricular assist device program is nothing short of a lifesaver. In 1995, Jean Loken's health was deteriorating quickly.Within days of suffering a damaging heart attack, she learned that she'd need a new heart to survive.

Internationally renowned cardiologist returns to the University

Francis joined the University faculty in October as an adult clinical cardiologist and associate director of the Lillehei Heart Institute's Clinical Trials Center. But he first came to the University professionally, serving at the end of that tenure as a professor of medicine and director of the Rasmussen Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention.

Lucas fellowship honors a pediatric cardiology leader by helping train the leaders of tomorrow

Longtime University of Minnesota pediatric cardiologist Russell V. Lucas Jr., M.D., was a great teacher and a generous man—so generous that in the 1970s he and his wife, Pat, opened their home to five orphaned children so they wouldn’t have to be separated from each other.

Healing young hearts

When you hear the words “heart trouble,” you’re probably more likely to think of an octogenarian than an infant. But every year some 35,000 babies in the United States are born with a heart defect that requires repair. And hundreds of other children have heart damage caused by illness.

Winter 2009

UMPhysicians joins new cardiology partnership

University of Minnesota Physicians and Edina-based Minnesota Heart Clinic (MHC) in October merged their cardiology programs, and with Fairview Health Services, they have established a new integrated cardiology program.

Fall 2008

University’s heart transplant program celebrates its 30th anniversary

For cardiovascular surgeon Lyle Joyce, M.D., Ph.D., it’s still a vivid memory. As a surgical resident at the University of Minnesota in 1978‚ he scrubbed in with Demetre Nicoloff‚ M.D.‚ Ph.D.‚ and William Lindsay‚ M.D.‚ to perform Minnesota’s first heart transplant.

Forging into the future of heart surgery with robotics

For decades‚ patients around the world have experienced the benefits of the University of Minnesota’s innovations in heart care. And just as the pioneering spirit of yesterday gave rise to lifesaving solutions such as the pacemaker and open-heart surgery‚ cardiovascular surgeons at the U today are advancing the field of robotic surgery.

Foundation puts its money into heart health

Even before the plane taking him to his fellowship interview landed‚ Santiago Garcia‚ M.D.‚ knew that he wanted to continue his cardiology training at the University of Minnesota. At an American Heart Association meeting in 2004‚ Garcia had attended a session on the most influential clinical trials in cardiovascular medicine.

Childhood cancer survivors face higher risk of serious heart problems as adults

A University of Minnesota team has discovered a link between childhood cancer survivorship and serious heart problems later in life. When compared with their healthy siblings, childhood cancer survivors are 5 to 10 times more likely to develop serious heart problems, the team found.

Summer 2008

In gratitude for education and opportunities, family gives back to the University

C. Walton Lillehei‚ M.D.‚ Ph.D.‚ known to many as “the father of open-heart surgery‚” earned all five of his degrees at the University of Minnesota. His widow‚ Katherine “Kaye” Lillehei‚ earned two degrees in nursing here. His brothers are all University graduates‚ as are their wives.

Continuing a proud legacy

In 1952‚ F. John Lewis‚ M.D.‚ Ph.D.‚ performed the world’s first successful open-heart surgery‚ which used hypothermia. Two years later‚ C.Walton Lillehei‚ M.D.‚ Ph.D.‚ led the world’s first successful open-heart surgery using cross-circulation. In 1957 Lillehei worked with inventor Earl Bakken to create a portable battery-powered pacemaker.

The heart of discovery

Effective in July‚ we’ll be offering a redesigned three-year cardiovascular fellowship that provides our fellows with time to develop and implement a research project of their choice. Training under our faculty‚ the scientists will develop a understanding of the heart and how disease develops.

Spring 2008

At the heart of innovation

University of Minnesota scientists have ushered in cardiovascular breakthroughs. One research team created a beating heart in the laboratory by removing all the cells from a dead rat heart and then seeding the remaining scaffolding with live, immature heart cells.

U receives funding for biomedical research buildings

Thanks to bipartisan support from the state legislature and Governor, the University of Minnesota will construct four research buildings as part of the Minnesota Biomedical Research Program. The five-year project, backed by university-sold bonds, will cost $292 million.

Research team creates beating heart in the lab

By using a process called whole-organ decellularization, scientists at the University’s Center for Cardiovascular Repair grew functioning heart tissue by taking dead rat and pig hearts and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells.

U takes lead of studies linking taconite mining and cancer

The University’s School of Public Health (SPH) has taken the lead role in a research initiative examining the relationship between a rare form of cancer and taconite mining in northern Minnesota.

A heartfelt ‘Happy Birthday’

St. Paul native and University of Minnesota graduate Bob Calmenson turned 60 on June 2. That’s a major milestone for anyone, but especially for Bob, who was born with a life-threatening congenital heart defect—and not expected to make it to his 20s.

Winter 2008

U honors pacemaker inventor with honorary M.D.

The University of Minnesota Medical School in December presented Earl Bakken, inventor of the first battery-powered, wearable pacemaker and cofounder of Medtronic, Inc., with its first-ever honorary M.D. degree.

U to participate in landmark children’s study

The University of Minnesota has been named a lead study center in the National Children’s Study, which will assess the effects of environmental and genetic factors on health in the United States. Along with that designation will come $14 million over five years to support the research.

Act now to invest in the future of medicine

In the last 18 months, the University of Minnesota Medical School has hired nationally recognized leaders in surgery, orthopaedic surgery, otolaryngology, cardiology, stem cell research, pediatrics, pediatric neurology, and other specialties.

Fall 2007

Setting the pace

December 1957. As snow swirls around a garage-turned workshop in northeast Minneapolis, the young man inside hunches over a collection of wires, resistors, switches, and other electrical bits and pieces. History is being made: The man is Earl Bakken, and the device taking shape in his hands is the world’s first wearable transistorized pacemaker.

A kind heart: A son remembered

In memory of their son, couple funds endowed chair in preventive cardiology. It was a Monday morning in 1998 when Donald and Patricia Garofalo got the phone call that turned their lives upside down. Their son Tony had had a heart attack at work. They rushed to the hospital. Tony—just 28 years old—had passed away.

Spring 2007

A breath of fresh air

People with lung disease are breathing easier under new transplant protocols. At first Gary Broberg figured it was just a matter of being 49. As winter 2004 turned to spring, the Mendota Heights father of two found he didn’t have the energy he once did. He got winded going up a flight of stairs. It seemed he was always out of breath. He felt odd ... and old.

Alumnus to lead Lillehei Heart Institute and Division of Cardiology

Distinguished University alumnus Daniel J. Garry, M.D., Ph.D., will hold the St. Jude Medical Cardiovascular Chair in Biomedical Engineering as the Medical School’s new director of the Lillehei Heart Institute and of the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine.

Adult stem cells show promise for heart repair

A team of University researchers has found a stem cell in adult rat heart tissue that can make cardiac cells—offering hope that these cells could someday be used to treat heart injuries in people.

Winter 2007

University cardiologist honored for heart disease interventions

University of Minnesota cardiologist Jay N. Cohn, M.D., received the Heart Failure Society of America’s first annual lifetime achievement award for his contributions to heart disease detection and prevention.

Insulin resistance in early teens may predict adult onset of diabetes and heart disease

Insulin resistance in the early teenage years may portend cardiovascular disease and diabetes in adulthood, according to University researchers.

University researchers turn cord blood into lung cells

In research likely to improve understanding of lung development and disease, University researchers have coaxed umbilical cord blood stem cells to differentiate into a type of lung cell.

Center for Bioethics receives grant to study living-donor lung transplantation

Center for Bioethics faculty member Maryam Valapour, M.D., hopes to improve living-donor lung transplantation for both donors and recipients with a $750,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study barriers to the procedure.

Breathing easier: Helping to advocate lung research

Donations to lung research help propel U’s program to the top. When Dave Amato was diagnosed with usual interstitial pneumonitis in 2002, the life-threatening lung disease was already at an advanced stage. Soon his wife, was on the phone with lung transplant centers all over the country.

Fall 2006

Walking History

One woman’s heart condition is repaired with two very different procedures—63 years apart. Merrilyn Dawson doesn’t need to see the list of “firsts” in heart surgery to know that the University of Minnesota is a leader in the field. Instead, she is living proof of the University’s innovations.

Spring 2006

$2 million gift establishes Amplatz Chair in Radiology

AGA Medical Corporation has made a $2 million gift to establish the Amplatz Chair in Radiology at the University of Minnesota. The endowed chair honors the achievements of Kurt Amplatz, M.D., a pioneer in the field of interventional radiology and pediatric cardiology.

Winter 2006

Growing Hope

For four decades, University doctors have been extended life for those whith cystic fibrosis. Whoever said there was a finite amount of energy in the universe has not met Dylan Mertz. This six-year-old just can't get enough of life. He plays soccer and baseball.