Project description
Building a human mini-heart in the lab
Making our own hearts is just a heartbeat away, literally. Engineers are joining forces with biologists to make biological heart-robots. The EU-funded BioRobot-MiniHeart project is developing a vascularised beating mini-heart. In parallel, the team is creating a self-propulsion swimming bio-robot that is made by assembling human cardiac cells into 3D tissue structures. To do this, they used sacrificial molding and high-resolution 3D bioprinting. The mini-heart and the bio-robot will provide scientists with a more realistic human cardiac model in vitro and an appropriate tool to assess cardiotoxicants' presence in the environment. This innovation is expected to help speed up development of heart disease cures.
Objective
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the N1 cause of death worldwide despite the significant efforts of academia and pharmaceutical industry to understand the different underlying causes of CVD. They have been hampered by the lack of proper human cardiac models as the animal models have different physiology and gene expression from the human situation and the flat cell culture in vitro models are not capable of producing pumping motion, which is the main function of the heart. Furthermore, pesticides toxicity and risk for human health are controlled at a European level through a well-developed regulatory network, however, cardiotoxicity is not described as a separate hazard class while it can have long-term cardiovascular complications. Here we propose to make better predicative in vitro cardiac models by making a vascularized beating mini-heart and a self-propulsion swimming bio-robot made by assembling human cardiac cells into 3D tissue structures using sacrificial molding and high-resolution 3D bio-printing. The mini-heart and the bio-robot will enable the scientific community to have a more realistic human cardiac model in vitro and a proper tool to assess the presence of cardiotoxicants in the environment. This work will be done in a consortium of four parties with the necessary expertise, ranging from heart development, human pluripotent stem cells, 3D bioprinting, tissue engineering and biosensing, to bring these engineered living tissues to reality.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental biotechnology biosensing
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
7522 NB Enschede
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.