Thomas R. Cimato, M.D., Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases

State University of New York at Buffalo
tcimato@buffalo.edu

The focus of Professor Cimato's research is to identify novel therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Cimato has identified cardiovascular progenitors as they diverge from the mesoderm in murine and human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Future work will determine the mechanisms that control differentiation and growth of these cells to vascular and cardiac cell fates, and will determine if transplantation of human ESC derived cardiovascular precursors or endothelium can effectively revascularize ischemic myocardium. A second related area of interest is adult, autologous endothelial progenitors. Recent work has shown that peripheral blood cells identified by expression of VEGFR2, CD 133 and CD34 but NOT CD45 identifies endothelial progenitors from venous blood. The research goal is to determine if these cells can be obtained and expanded from pigs with chronic myocardial ischemia and dysfunctional myocardium, and effectively used as autologous therapy.

Select Publications

Cimato, T., Beers, J., Ding, S., Ma, M., Tesar, P., McCoy, J.P., McKay, R., Boehm, M., and Nabel, E. (2007) Neuropilin 1 Identifies Endothelial Precursors in Murine and Human Embryonic Stem Cells Prior to CD34 Expression.  Circulation 116 (Suppl II): II-135 (Abstract).