Mayo Clinic Scientist Awarded AHA Research Prize For Applying Newest Technologies to Advance Diagnosis, Treatment of Cardiovascular Disorders

CHICAGO, Nov. 17, 2014 — The American Heart Association today awarded its Basic Research Prize for 2014 to Ande Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic “for pioneering applications of emerging technologies to advance the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disorders.”Terzic received the prize during opening ceremonies of the AHA’s Scientific Sessions 2014 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Association President Elliott Antman of Boston presented the prize, a citation and $5,000 honorarium, recognizing outstanding achievement in basic cardiovascular science.

In presenting the prize, Antman said the Rochester, Minn., scientist “has opened exciting new avenues for the detection and treatment of disease through a highly sophisticated and powerfully efficacious approach to basic science.”

Terzic and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic have made significant scientific progress by taking discoveries that have been made at the basic scientist’s bench and translating them into useful new individualized applications for treating disease, Antman said.

“In more than 500 publications, Dr. Terzic and his team have advanced uses of multiple cardio-protective and cardio-regenerative techniques,” Antman said. One such advance is safer use of cardioplegia, the intentional temporary arrest of cardiac function to reduce the oxygen need of tissues during heart surgery.

Provocative findings of Terzic also include the discovery of genes underlying human dilated cardiomyopathy and atrial fibrillation, AHA’s president said, noting also that the Mayo scientist is the lead investigator in multicenter clinical trials testing stem cell therapy in heart failure.

Terzic is the Michael S. And Mary Sue Sherman Director, Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Marriott Family Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases at the Mayo Clinic. He also is professor of medicine and pharmacology at the clinic, which has honored him with its Excellence in Teaching, Outstanding Investigator and Outstanding Cardiovascular Research Mentor awards.

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