| Project Detail |
Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of mortality worldwide, making the demand for new therapies an urgent need. Additionally, unexpected cardiac adverse effects are the leading causes of discontinuation of clinical trials and withdrawal of drugs from the market. Such issues could be addressed by relevant in vitro human cardiac tissue models reproducing in vivo-like pharmacological response. However, most in vitro cardiac tissue models developed so far have been limited by complex design to enhance cardiomyocyte maturation, and poor ability to provide real-time functional assessment, making them poorly robust, reproducible, scalable and user-friendly. In EMPATIC I will overcome such limitations, through synergistic exploitation of biochemical and biophysical stimuli for cardiomyocyte phenotype maturation, studied in ERC project BIORECAR (772168). EMPATIC will provide a novel user-friendly and versatile multi-well plate platform for the in vitro modeling of mature functional human cardiac tissues and the non-invasive label-free monitoring of electrophysiological properties. EMPATIC platform will combine: (i) tailor-designed multi-well components, imparting biochemical and biophysical cues to in vitro cultured cells, and (ii) bioelectronic components enabling controlled electrical stimulation (ES) and biosensing. Collaboration with major experts in bioelectronics, cardiac regenerative medicine and electrophysiology, and companies will support EMPATIC innovation. My previous experience as coordinator of basic and applied research projects and co-founder of academic spin-off companies, and the entrepreneurship experience of 50% of EMPATIC team will support the process of technology development and validation. |
