Dr. Park, Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at CU Denver, receives NIH R21 grant ($406,500) from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. His project title is “A biomimetic reverse thermal gel for the treatment of myocardial infarction”. NIH will support this research for two years.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a leading coronary artery disease caused by the death of heart muscle tissues. The aim of this research is to develop new methodology to treat MI using a synthetic growth factor (GF) delivery system that 1) mimics biofunction of natural heparin, 2) achieves sustained and localized GF expression and 3) promotes angiogenesis in the infarction site and thereby enhances MI treatment effect.