Louisville researchers are using stem cells found in the heart to treat devastating heart failure.  While patients improve after stem cell transplant, no one really knows why. I wrote this story for the August 2011 edition of Louisville Magazine.

No alarm sounds but Dr. Roberto Bolli is awake. Again.

He’d slept fitfully, waking often to fret about the coming day, the thousand things that could go wrong, every possible misstep. Now, at 6 a.m., there was no point staying in bed. By 8, the cardiologist is in the bone marrow transplant laboratory at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center watching the research team prepare precious stem cells. The cells, coddled and multiplied for four months, will now, with a bit of luck, save a life.

Across the street in Jewish Hospital, doctors prepare Mike Jones to receive those cells. Jones, 66, a painting and remodeling contractor, will be awake during the procedure.

It’s good to be awake when you’re making history.

Read the rest of the story.