Why TYT Cares About Stem Cell Research

Watch the two interviews in this series on TYT Interviews where Cenk interviews Praveen, and the research team of Dr. Jim Cheung, Dr. Todd Evans and Dr. Albano Meli:

1. Stem Cell ResearchAt TYT It's Personal (Cenk Uygur Interview w/ Praveen Singh and Jayde Lovell)

2. How Stem Cell Research Is Curing Congenital Heart Defects (Interview w/ Cenk Uygur)

When we hear the term “Stem Cell Research”, we automatically think of controversy, and the conflict between religious groups and medical researchers that stole headlines in the lead up to the 2000 election. Today, stem cell research has progressed beyond using cells from embryos and is now an essential part of medical research – and potentially treatment – in adults. At age 31, The Young Turks' Praveen Singh unexpectedly passed out at work. After a trip to the emergency room and multiple subsequent tests, she was told her episode had been caused by an irregular heart beat associated with a condition called "ventricular tachycardia." Since that day, she has been pursuing answers to many unanswered questions about her condition, which let to a the formation of a world-leading team of scientists conducting stem cell research on her condition. This groundbreaking research has the potential to solve pieces of the puzzle in the cause and prevention of sudden cardiac arrest.

In the first interview with TYT host Cenk Uygur and TYT science correspondent Jayde Lovell, Singh talks about the international factfinding journey she embarked on to learn more about her condition and the difficult decisions she's had to make about whether to follow medical advice and have a defibrillator implanted and to take medications for the rest of her life. The three also discuss how and why stem cell research is a uniquely effective method for uncovering the root cause of ventricular tachycardia and critical to helping isolate and cure a range of cardiac conditions that lead to the premature deaths of thousands of Americans. To learn more about the research and support the research study, go to

In the second incredible interview, TYT host Cenk Uygur speaks with three world-leading scientists about their groundbreaking international research, and their ‘hunt for the cause’ behind a family of heart conditions that continue to prove fatal for tens of thousands of Americans. They discuss the Nobel Prize-winning stem cell technology that allows scientists to grow heart tissue from blood cells, the creation of a “disease in a dish”, the rise of ‘precision medicine’, and the potential for genetic engineering technology to cure all gene-based illnesses and save millions of lives.

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Interviewees for 2nd interview:

Dr Jim Cheung - Assistant Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University

Dr Todd Evans - Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College

Dr Albano Meli - Senior Research Associate, Inserm – the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research

To learn more about the research and support the research study, go to www.PraveenNYC.com

Read more about the story via Weill Cornell Medical College / NYPresbyterian Hospital

More detailed scientific explanation behind the research here

Learn about heart conditions via the American Heart Association

Find out more about ventricular tachycardia on Wikipedia