Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Reversible and irreversible cardiac electroporation: Establishing the fundamentals to advance cardiac treatments

Project description

Studying cardiac electroporation for advanced treatments

Cardiovascular diseases represent a paramount healthcare challenge, given their profound medical, economic, and social impacts. The ERC-funded REINCARNATION project aims to harness electroporation, application of an intense pulsed electric field, to advance treatment strategies. Irreversible electroporation has already emerged as a promising modality for removing arrhythmogenic tissue to treat atrial fibrillation. Reversible electroporation holds potential for delivering therapeutic nucleic acids intracellularly, fostering cardiac regeneration and addressing incurable ischaemic heart disease. Yet, a lack of fundamental understanding hinders precise control of these processes. REINCARNATION delves into the biophysical mechanisms of cardiac electroporation at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels. By combining experiments, computational modelling, and advanced data analysis, it lays the groundwork for more effective treatments.

Objective

Cardiovascular diseases are the No. 1 healthcare challenge in the world, among which ischemic heart disease and atrial fibrillation are the most prevalent. Better treatment strategies are greatly needed to reduce the medical, economic, and social burden of these conditions.

Electroporation (application of intense pulsed electric field) is showing tremendous potential for treatment of atrial fibrillation, enabling a safer and shorter treatment procedure compared with existing thermal ablation approaches. Moreover, recent pioneering studies provide evidence that electroporation can also be used as a nonviral vector for intracellular delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids that promote cardiac regeneration, potentially offering a way to cure the so-far incurable ischemic heart disease.

For treatment of atrial fibrillation, electroporation must be irreversible, resulting in the death of cardiac muscle cells, to locally destroy (ablate) the arrhythmogenic cardiac tissue. Conversely, for treatment of ischemic heart disease electroporation must be reversible, meaning that the pulsed electric field transiently enhances cellular uptake of nucleic acids while the cells are able to survive and express the delivered transgene(s). Due to a lack of fundamental understanding of cardiac electroporation, there are currently no reliable methods able to ensure electroporation (ir)reversibility and the desired treatment outcome.

This project is designed to decipher the biophysical mechanisms of cardiac electroporation at the molecular, cellular and tissue level as to develop methodologies that will enable optimal implementation of both irreversible and reversible electroporation. By combining bottom-up experiments in primary cardiac cells and tissue slices with computational modeling and advanced data analysis I will create the foundations needed to streamline further (pre)clinical research and realize the potential of electroporation to advance cardiac treatments.

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.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

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.

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.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 1 500 000,00
Address
KONGRESNI TRG 12
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

See on map

Region
Slovenija Zahodna Slovenija Osrednjeslovenska
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

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.

€ 1 500 000,00

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0