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“At the time, I had the feeling everyone in Edmonton had the same vision: to lead the field of cardiac care internationally. The whole province wanted to create something special.
- Dr. Holger Buchholz
Dr. Evangelos Michelakis
Professor and Associate Chair for Research, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta Cardiologist, University of Alberta Hospital’s Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute,
Alberta Health Services
“We can expect that medicine in 2050 will be focused on increasing longevity and health span. We won’t necessarily be dying later, but there will be a lot
of options to slow down the aging process that gives rise to diseases like dementia, lung failure, kidney failure, heart failure, osteoporosis and so forth. If you go out and share very provocative ideas, the science community has difficulty funding it. For example, if I were to go and say I am working on a drug that can induce hibernation in human organs and revolutionize transplant medicine, people will either laugh or ask me
to show the data before funding
it. When I went to the University Hospital Foundation, however, I made a presentation of what I thought was an interesting idea that had a small chance of succeeding but, if it did, would really be big. Having more organs available for transplantation would mean more people would get the transplants they need to survive. And with an organ bank, they could schedule their surgery much like you would with a hip replacement.
That’s the benefit of the University Hospital Foundation; they’re able to identify provocative, high-risk, high- return projects and invest in them.”
Dr. Michelakis studies the science of aging using animal models. His current research investigates the potential
for chemical compounds produced
by hibernating animals to promote longevity in human cells.
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