Koevary wins patent medallion for cardiac research

Every year, the College of Engineering celebrates faculty who achieved patents in their research. Among the dozen awarded this year was BME adjunct professor Jennifer Koevary, who earned a medallion for a patented method that improves cardiac function.

The method treats heart arrhythmia – an irregular heartbeat caused by faulty electrical signals that disrupt the heart's natural beat – by applying cells directly to a patient’s heart, addressing a condition that affects millions of Americans. The most common form of arrhythmia, known as AFib, is estimated to affect 2.7 to 6.1 million people in the United States, according to Yale Medicine. However, a recent University of California, San Francisco study raised that estimate to 10.5 million U.S. adults in 2024.

"There are some therapies available for people with arrhythmias, but they have a very low success rate and in the worst-case scenario, the patient can die," Koevary said.

The demand for better treatments is urgent, and her method shows promise. In preclinical trials, Koevary and her fellow researchers at the U of A Sarver Heart Center observed an unexpected outcome.

"What is unique about what we're doing and why it was patented is that most people in the field of cell therapy give immune suppression medications to the patients because they need those cells that they're implanting to survive,” she said.

Without the immune suppression, the body's immune system will eliminate those cells, Koevary explained.

“We found that by not suppressing the immune system, we were able to activate the immune system in a positive way to help repair the heart."