Dr Sanjay Sinha, group leader at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Cardiologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, was featured in the latest series on Surgeons: Edge of Life aired on BBC 2 on the 20th of October.
The latest series of the Surgeons’ Edge of Life series on BBC 2 focuses on Royal Papworth and Addenbrooke’s Hospital and, alongside showing operations carried out in the hospitals also features interviews about research being carried out in Cambridge. Sanjay is a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Senior Research Fellow and a Reader in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the University of Cambridge and his lab’s research focusses on developing new treatments for vascular diseases. In the programme, Sanjay talks about the lab’s research into the regenerative potential of heart cells created in the lab from stem cells. The team’s research has shown that it is possible to create beating heart cells in the lab from stem cells and are exploring the possibilities to treat patients who have suffered from a heart attack with stem cell derived therapies which could either be injected to the damage area or appliedin the form of a “patch” generated in the lab. It is hoped that the team will be able to trial this technology in patients in 3-4 years’ time.
Find out more about the Sinha lab's research here.