The Marcus Foundation, established by late Home Depot co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bernie Marcus, has committed $28.7 million to the University of Southern California (USC) to support groundbreaking research into regenerative treatments that could one day help repair heart muscle damaged by heart attacks.
The funding will support the research programme led by physician-scientist Charles “Chuck” Murry, director of USC Stem Cell and a leading researcher in cardiovascular regenerative medicine. Murry’s work focuses on developing stem-cell-derived heart muscle cells that could potentially replace damaged cardiac tissue and help restore the heart’s ability to function after a major injury. USC identifies Murry as a researcher focused on understanding cardiovascular disease and developing new treatments.
The donation represents the largest contribution the Marcus Foundation has made to USC and one of its major investments in academic medicine. The foundation said the funding is intended to help advance gene-edited cellular therapies toward clinical trials, potentially bringing researchers closer to testing regenerative heart treatments in humans.
Could Stem Cells Actually Repair a Damaged Heart?
A heart attack occurs when blood flow to part of the heart is blocked, depriving cardiac muscle of oxygen. When the affected tissue dies, the body generally replaces much of it with scar tissue rather than fully regenerating the lost heart muscle. This can weaken the heart’s pumping ability and, in severe cases, contribute to chronic heart failure.
Murry’s research is focused on a different possibility: producing cardiomyocytes, the specialised muscle cells responsible for the heart’s contractions, from stem cells and introducing them into damaged areas of the heart.
The long-term objective is to determine whether these laboratory-generated heart muscle cells can survive after transplantation, integrate with existing cardiac tissue and contribute meaningfully to the heart’s pumping function.
USC says Murry has spent decades pursuing the goal of regenerating damaged heart tissue. His research has progressed from fundamental stem-cell biology toward increasingly advanced preclinical studies designed to determine whether the approach could eventually be translated into human treatment.
The Biggest Challenge: Keeping the New Heart Cells in Rhythm
One of the major obstacles in heart regeneration is not simply getting transplanted cells to survive—it is ensuring that they function safely alongside the patient’s existing heart muscle.
Heart cells need to contract in a coordinated rhythm. If newly transplanted cells beat out of sync with the surrounding tissue, they could potentially trigger dangerous abnormal heart rhythms, known as arrhythmias.
This challenge has been a major focus of Murry’s research.
USC has reported that his team used gene-editing techniques to address the electrical mismatch between transplanted cells and the recipient’s heart. In preclinical research involving rhesus monkeys, the researchers reported that gene-edited cells reduced the risk of dangerous arrhythmias by 95% while helping repair heart damage.
The findings are significant because they address one of the biggest safety barriers standing between experimental heart-regeneration technology and potential human clinical trials.
However, the research remains experimental. Results obtained in animals cannot establish that the treatment will be safe or effective in humans, and extensive clinical testing and regulatory review will be required before such a therapy could become available to heart attack patients.
From Laboratory Research to Human Trials
The latest funding is particularly important because Murry’s work is increasingly focused on translating laboratory discoveries into potential medical treatments.
USC has previously described his research programme as spanning basic science through translational applications, with the ultimate objective of developing therapies that can move from laboratory experiments into clinical medicine.
The university has also worked with biotechnology partners to advance heart-regeneration technologies, including approaches involving induced pluripotent stem cells and genetic enhancement of heart muscle. Those programmes have included safety and efficacy studies intended to support eventual applications for human clinical trials.
The $28.7 million commitment could therefore provide researchers with the resources needed to continue refining the technology, address remaining safety questions and potentially move closer to the clinical-testing stage.
A Personal Connection to Medicine for Bernie Marcus
The donation also carries a personal significance for Bernie Marcus.
Before becoming a billionaire businessman, Marcus had originally dreamed of becoming a doctor. His family could not afford medical school, leading him to study pharmacy at Rutgers University instead.
His career eventually moved into business, where he became one of the founders of Home Depot alongside Arthur Blank and other partners. The company went on to become one of the world’s largest home-improvement retailers.
Marcus died in November 2024 at the age of 95. His philanthropic interests, however, remained heavily focused on medicine, scientific research and improving healthcare outcomes.
A Foundation With Billions Behind Medical Research
Bernie Marcus and his wife, Billi, established the Marcus Foundation in 1989. According to the foundation, it has since distributed more than $2.7 billion through over 3,500 grants.
Medical research has remained one of its major areas of focus, alongside initiatives involving cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, autism, regenerative medicine and other healthcare priorities.
The foundation has previously supported institutions and programmes including the Marcus Stroke and Neuroscience Center at Grady, the Marcus Autism Center and the Marcus Institute for Brain Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
The latest USC commitment continues that long-running focus on medical innovation.
Hope for Heart Patients, But No Immediate Treatment
For millions of people who suffer heart attacks, the possibility of actually regenerating damaged heart muscle would represent a major shift in cardiovascular medicine.
Current treatments can restore blood flow, control symptoms and reduce the risk of future cardiac events, but they generally cannot simply replace large amounts of heart muscle that have already been lost.
Stem-cell-based regeneration could potentially address that fundamental limitation—but researchers still have significant scientific and clinical hurdles to overcome.
Murry himself has emphasised the importance of moving carefully. USC previously reported that his team paused efforts to move the therapy toward clinical use while concentrating on solving the arrhythmia problem, reflecting the need to establish safety before testing the approach in patients.
The $28.7 million commitment from the Marcus Foundation therefore does not mean a new treatment is immediately available. Instead, it represents a major investment in research that could help determine whether damaged human hearts can eventually be repaired using engineered living cells.
If successful in future clinical trials, the approach could open an entirely new chapter in regenerative cardiology—moving medicine beyond simply treating the consequences of heart damage toward actually rebuilding the tissue that was lost.
Author
About the Author
