$2M funds new research chair in cardiac imaging

Ottawa, ON – An endowed chair in cardiac imaging that will enable more intensified research into the causes of heart disease is being created by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) after a $2 million donation by retired Ottawa businessman Saul Goldfarb.

A long-time real-estate developer, retailer and philanthropist, Mr Goldfarb recently made the donation in tribute to the Heart Institute’s work under cardiologist Dr Rob Beanlands, chief of cardiac imaging at UOHI. The funds will support research now underway in molecular medicine.

The chair will provide leadership in an area where researchers can find better treatments for heart disease. Several principle investigators, including surgeons, physicists and chemists, have begun projects at the Heart Institute into how the function of molecules in the heart are altered as a result of heart disease. Much of the molecular research is done using positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Dr Beanlands is the founding director of the National Cardiac PET Centre, located at the Heart Institute.

“With advances in cardiac imaging, we will study the study the heart and diagnose disease with greater precision,” says Dr Beanlands. “This donation provides us with the opportunity to make great strides that will allow physicians someday to diagnose and treat heart disease even before symptoms appear.”