From the Archives: Dr. Jean-Francois Legare Researches Relationship Between Scar Tissue, Heart Failure

Dr. Jean-Francois Legare’s research into heart-based scar tissue was a main beneficiary of the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation’s Molly Appeal in 2015. The annual funding campaign is part of a regional effort to create a ’tissue bank’ that would allow cardiac researchers to save and test patient tissue samples for years or even decades.

In his former position as the university’s director of cardiac research, Dr. Legare’s lab at Dalhousie targeted methods for reducing heart scarring and improving the cardiovascular health of elderly patients.

“‘Heart failure is becoming an increasingly important factor in medical research, because in recent years research has made other diseases more treatable, leading to longer life expectancies.’

‘As people live longer there is more opportunity for scar tissue to build up on their hearts and that has made heart failure one of the leading causes of death,’ Legare said.”

Read more at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dalhousie-cardiac-research-1.3263675