Billionaire Bernie Marcus’ Home Depot Foundation donates $28.7 million to stem cell research that could treat hearts damaged by heart attacks
The Bernie Marcus Foundation, one of Home Depot’s founders, has committed $28.7 million to stem cell research at the University of Southern California. The research aims to develop treatments for heart damage caused by heart attacks. This funding will support physician-scientist Charles “Chuck” Murray, director of the USC Stem Cell Center. His team is studying how stem cell-derived heart muscle cells can help regenerate damaged heart tissue. The work is still experimental and is being developed toward clinical trials. There is no established treatment for heart attack patients yet. The donation also continues Marcus’s long history of supporting medical research, a cause he had a personal connection to because he once dreamed of becoming a doctor.
Home Depot founder donates $28.7 million to advance stem cell research
The Marcus Foundation has committed $28.7 million to support Mori’s research into regenerative therapies for damaged hearts. USC says his work focuses on using stem cell-derived heart muscle cells to repair tissue damaged by heart attacks, while the foundation said the funding will help advance the gene-edited cell therapy toward clinical trials. This gift is the largest the Marcus Foundation has made to USC and one of its largest contributions to academic medicine. USC said this commitment will support research led by Charles “Chuck” Murray, director of the USC Stem Cell Center, as scientists work to advance the experimental treatment toward human clinical trials. A heart attack can destroy part of the heart muscle when blood flow is cut off, leaving behind scar tissue that can weaken the organ and reduce its ability to pump blood. Researchers are studying whether new heart muscle cells created from stem cells can replace some of the lost tissue and help restore heart function.
How stem cells can repair heart damage
The human heart has a limited ability to replace muscle cells after major injury, which is why researchers have been exploring regenerative medicine as a potential treatment for heart disease. Mori’s work focuses on cardiomyocytes, the specialized muscle cells responsible for heart contractions. Scientists can produce these cells from stem cells in the laboratory and study whether they can survive being transplanted into damaged heart tissue, integrating with existing cells and contributing to heart function. However, the treatment remains experimental and faces many challenges. Researchers must determine how well the new cells work in humans and whether they can be introduced safely without causing complications.
Gene editing could help make treatment safer
A major challenge in transplanting new heart muscle cells is the risk of abnormal heart rhythms if the cells do not beat in sync with the patient’s existing heart tissue. Mori’s team has explored gene editing techniques designed to address this problem before cells are implanted. The University of Southern California reported promising preclinical results from animal studies in which gene-edited cells reduced the risk of developing dangerous arrhythmias and helped restore damaged heart tissue. However, these results do not prove that the treatment is safe or effective in humans. Clinical trials will be needed to determine whether this approach can eventually be used as a treatment for people who have suffered heart attacks, and the Marcus Foundation funding is intended to help bring the research closer to that stage.
Bernie Marcus’s lifelong relationship with medicine
Marcus dreamed of becoming a doctor before becoming a billionaire businessman. His family couldn’t afford medical school, so he studied pharmacy at Rutgers University and graduated in 1954. According to Home Depot, Marcus would sometimes skip classes to sell Amana freezers door to door while studying. He then moved into business and held senior positions at several companies before being fired from Handy Dan, a home improvement retailer, in 1978. This setback led Marcus and Arthur Blank to found Home Depot with other partners, opening the first stores in Atlanta in 1979. The company eventually grew into one of the largest home improvement retailers in the United States. Marcus died on November 4, 2024, at the age of 95, and Forbes estimated his fortune at $11 billion.
The Marcus Foundation’s long history of medical giving
Marcus and his wife Billie founded the Marcus Foundation in 1989, and the foundation says it has since awarded more than $2.7 billion through more than 3,500 grants. Medical research is a key focus area, with priorities including stem cell research and regenerative medicine, cancer detection and treatment, autism, integrative medicine, and cardiovascular disease, including stroke. Her previous clinical initiatives include the Marcus Stroke and Neuroscience Center at Grady, the Marcus Autism Center, and the Marcus Institute for Brain Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The foundation describes its support of medical research as part of a broader effort to advance treatments and improve patient outcomes, continuing the philanthropic focus that Marcus has maintained for decades. The recent donation to USC continues this decades-long focus on medicine. While heart regeneration with stem cells is still experimental, the $28.7 million commitment could help researchers determine whether the technology could eventually become a safe treatment for heart tissue damaged by heart attacks.
