Date: 2013-12-04
Type of information: Grant
Company: AMCARE (Advanced Materials for CArdiac REgeneration) consortium (AdjuCor (Germany), Cardio3Biosciences (Belgium), Contipro (Czech Republic), Explora BioTech (Italy), Innova (Italy), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (Germany), the Eberhard Karls Universitat Tübingen (Germany) Boston Scientific based in Galway, Ireland)
Investors: European Commission’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7)
Amount: €8.7 million
Funding type: grant
Planned used: This grant will be used to carry out research to develop natural materials and new surgical devices to enhance the delivery of the body’s own stem cells to the heart to promote healing after a heart attack (myocardial infarction) and prevent premature death. The therapies being developed will replace heart cells that die due to the reduced blood flow that occurs during a heart attack, with new healthy cells derived from stem cells that come from the patient’s own bone marrow.
Others: * On December 4, 2013, the AMCARE (Advanced Materials for CArdiac REgeneration) consortium has announced that it has received €8.7 million in total funding (€6.8 million direct EU contribution) as part of the FP7. The AMCARE programme is co-ordinated by Dr. Garry Duffy, Department of Anatomy and Tissue Engineering Research Group, RCSI and AMBER Investigator. AMBER (Advanced Materials for Bioengineering Research) is a newly established Science Foundation Ireland funded research centre. This centre will lead specific tasks in the consortium, tackling surgical device design, nanotechnology safety and drug delivery.
The consortium involves ten partners from five European countries and the AMCARE programme, will create ten new positions. It represents a major interdisciplinary effort between stem cell biologists, experts in advanced drug delivery, research scientists, clinicians and research-active companies working together to develop novel therapeutics to address the challenges of treating acute heart disease. The researchers will optimise adult stem cell therapy using smart biomaterials and advanced drug delivery, and couple these therapeutics with minimally-invasive surgical devices. The project is funded under Grant Agreement n°NMP3-SME-2013-604531 from November 2013 to October 2018.
Therapeutic area: Cardiovascular diseases
