Project description
Light-based therapy for atrial fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of heart rhythm disorder, characterised by irregular and often rapid heartbeats. AF is associated with serious health risks including stroke, heart failure, and increased mortality. Current treatments like drugs and ablation offer limited effectiveness, while treatment with electrical shocks requires sedation. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Opto-AF-Therapy project will develop a novel, implantable, shock-free device for the treatment of AF. The idea is to trigger the heart to restore normal cardiac rhythm by using optogenetics, light-sensitive proteins introduced into cardiac tissue. These are expected to generate bioelectrical currents in response to light pulses, transforming AF management and patient outcomes.
Objective
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of heart rhythm disturbance, progressive in nature and associated with high morbidity and mortality. Thus, an effective and broadly applicable treatment to quickly restore normal rhythm at any time and place is highly desired. However, such therapy is lacking. In contrast to drugs and ablation, electrical cardioversion of AF is effective in broad populations of AF patients, but can only performed within hospitals because of the required patient sedation due to the use of high-voltage shocks. This undesired delay in treatment, huge hospital workload, and impact on patient mobility, further signifies the need for the development of new treatment strategies.
To overcome these challenges and meet this need for new therapeutics, my group developed the concept of optoelectronic cardiac rhythm control. This approach is based on the paradigm that arrhythmia termination for restoration of normal rhythm can be achieved by appropriately timed generation of bioelectrical currents by the arrhythmic heart itself. To enable such shock-free and therefore pain-free AF termination, cardiac tissue will be optogenetically modified to express light-sensitive proteins. A small implantable optical defibrillator will trigger the release of light pulses by a multi-electrode LED array upon automated AF detection. Our recent results in rodents show that this indeed results in pain-free and immediate AF termination, thus overcoming the drawbacks of electrical cardioversion.
To realize valorisation towards clinical exploration, Opto-AF-Therapy will focus on the optimization of the expression cassette for optogenetic modification of atrial tissue and conduct first proof-of-principle large animal studies. Complementary to these activities, my team will establish an IP strategy, file relevant patent application(s), conduct thorough market analyses and condense all findings into a business case to present to potential partners & investors.
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.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine cardiology cardiovascular diseases cardiac arrhythmia
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
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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.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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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-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept 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) ERC-2024-POC
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2333 ZA Leiden
Netherlands
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