Welcome to HeartWorks! We are a nonprofit organization with one singular focus: changing what’s possible for people born with congenital heart disease. If you’re new to all of this, this is where to begin.
First, What Is Congenital Heart Disease?
Congenital heart disease affects approximately 1 in every 100 babies born. It includes structural differences in the heart that are present at birth, affecting the heart’s chambers, valves, or blood vessels, and ranges dramatically in severity. Over the past several decades, advances in surgery and medical care have helped more children with CHD survive and grow into adulthood, and that progress has been remarkable. But survival has also revealed the next challenge.
For many people with complex CHD, the surgeries that helped them survive were never designed to cure the underlying condition. They help the heart function, but they do not rebuild damaged or missing heart muscle. That is the gap HeartWorks exists to close.
So, What Does HeartWorks Do?
HeartWorks builds and advances new technologies designed specifically for congenital heart disease including regenerative medicine, patient-specific cell therapies, and circulatory support technologies aimed at creating more options for people living with CHD. One of the most compelling examples of that work begins with something surprisingly small: a skin sample.
HeartWorks can take a patient’s own skin cells and reprogram them into induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs. Those cells are then expanded and transformed into bioengineered heart muscle cells, with the goal of developing therapies that can strengthen a weakened heart using the patient’s own biology. The science is sophisticated, but the question driving it is straightforward: what if we could do more than help a heart survive? What if we could help make it stronger?
More Than a Research Lab
Developing the science is only one piece of what it takes to actually reach patients. A promising discovery still has to be tested, manufactured under rigorous standards, reviewed by regulators, translated into clinical protocols, and ultimately delivered safely to the people who need it. That is why HeartWorks was built as an integrated platform rather than a single research lab. Our team brings together scientists, physicians, engineers, manufacturing experts, and clinical professionals who each play a role in moving new therapies from discovery to delivery – all with one disease community in mind.
Patients and Families Are Part of the Work, Too
Solving CHD cannot happen in a laboratory alone. Through The Co-op @ HeartWorks, people living with congenital heart disease can contribute something invaluable to the research process: their data. By bringing together information from across the CHD community, the Co-op helps researchers better understand patients, identify unmet needs, and connect the right people with the right opportunities. There are many ways to move this mission forward: some people participate in research, some give, some fundraise, and some simply share their story or help someone else understand why this work matters. All of it adds up.
Why a Nonprofit?
Developing new medical technologies requires significant resources, but HeartWorks was built around a mission rather than a commercial market. Philanthropy allows us to invest in the people, facilities, manufacturing capabilities, and research required to keep moving promising ideas forward. Every person who chooses to support HeartWorks becomes a real part of that effort.
Ready to Go Deeper?
You don’t have to understand stem cells or cardiac anatomy to be part of HeartWorks. Our HeartWorks 101 series — developed with Matt Ames — walks through the full story, from why CHD remains such a difficult medical challenge to the science, infrastructure, and people working to build new possibilities for the 1 in 100.
→ Start the HeartWorks 101 Series
Congenital heart disease is complex. Solving it will be, too. But for the first time, advances in science and technology are giving us tools that didn’t exist for generations before us. HeartWorks is bringing those tools and the people needed to use them together with one goal: a better future for everyone living with congenital heart disease. Welcome to HeartWorks.
