Description du projet
Solution de régénération cardiaque in vivo prête à l’emploi
Les progrès de l’ingénierie tissulaire permettent la fabrication de tissus cardiaques pour régénérer un cœur endommagé ou réparer des malformations cardiaques congénitales. Cependant, la culture du tissu cardiaque est laborieuse, ce qui exige des alternatives plus rapides. Financé par le Conseil européen de la recherche, le projet LIGHTHEART entend développer une approche d’ingénierie tissulaire cardiaque in vivo qui utilise des cellules souches pluripotentes induites différenciées en cellules cardiaques directement sur le cœur du patient. Cette stratégie fait appel à la bio-impression et à la stimulation optogénétique des protéines exprimées à la surface des cellules pour piloter l’assemblage cellulaire, ce qui permet de s’affranchir de la nécessité d’intégrer les cellules dans des hydrogels. Cette solution révolutionnaire de bio-impression devrait faire progresser la médecine régénérative et la médecine de transplantation, apportant ainsi de l’espoir à des millions de personnes souffrant d’insuffisance cardiaque.
Objectif
Heart failure remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide taking an estimate of 16 million lives each year. Cardiac tissue engineering solutions that can improve the quality of life of those with advanced heart disease have proved challenging so far. Bioprinting is an exciting technology that holds promise to fabricate tissues and organs. Lab-grown engineered cardiac muscle requires at least four weeks to maturate in a bioreactor. In LIGHTHEART, an off-the-shelf solution will be developed for treating injured myocardium in vivo. An unconventional combination of bioprinting and optogenetics will be used to surgically fabricate engineered cardiac muscle directly at the patient’s heart. A surgical bioprinting tool will be constructed to achieve vascularization and cellular architectures as that observed in native cardiac muscle. Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac cells will be the basis of the bioinspired biomaterial-free ink that will be printed. Optogenetic expression of different light-sensitive proteins at the cell surfaces will be the sole trigger of cellular assembly, thus omitting the need to embed cells in hydrogels or printing in a supporting bath. Surgical optogenetic bioprinting will be first tested ex vivo using a silicone human phantom with a mimicking beating heart, and later in vivo in a large animal model in accordance with the 3R principles. LIGHTHEART opens up new horizons in the way heart failure can be clinically treated and brings hope to patients who are desperately waiting for a heart transplantation. The disruptive nature of LIGHTHEART will unite engineers, surgeons and scientists to change the future of transplantation medicine with modular bottom-up technologies that allow for in vivo tissue and organ restoration or replacement directly at the operating theatre.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Institution d’accueil
69117 Heidelberg
Allemagne