Coronary artery disease is the single most important killer of Canadians. Despite major advances in therapy, there is still a significant proportion of patients identified with the disease who die of it because current treatment approaches cannot effectively palliate their condition. A new treatment modality called therapeutic angiogenesis has appeared on the clinical research scene during the last five years; this approach recreates the natural processes of new blood vessel formation that is observed during growth and development in every human being. It is an extremely potent and promising modality, but so far the results of clinical trials in patients have been equivocal.