Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, is a common but potentially lethal heart disease. While researchers have tried for decades to understand the contribution of the many genes linked to the condition, challenges and inefficiencies around growing heart muscle cells with only specific mutations—and no others that could cloud results—has hampered progress.
Now, the Allen Institute for Cell Science has taken a step toward solving the problem with six new pluripotent stem cell lines, each of which has a different key gene mutation found in HCM. The cells are the result of a joint effort between the Allen Institute, the University of Washington, the University of California, Santa Barbara and Stanford University. They’re the first “disease-specific” cell line collection offered by the institution.