Project description
Repair mechanisms after heart attack
Heart attack is a leading cause of death in Europe. Unlike zebrafish, which can fully regenerate their hearts after injury, humans have very limited cardiac repair capacity. Reactive metabolites are key regulators of cardioprotection and tissue regeneration, yet their context-specific mechanisms remain poorly understood. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HEAL-REX project will investigate how reactive metabolite signalling is coordinated during specific cell-cell interactions in defined multicellular contexts during cardiac repair. Using advanced technologies and models of heart healing, the project will uncover how these natural stress signals shape cardiovascular responses to injury. This knowledge could inform future precision therapies to promote tissue repair and regeneration after a heart attack.
Objective
Our body continuously produces reactive chemical signals/reactive metabolites (REMs). Specialized proteins can detect and transmit REM-signals to trigger appropriate biological responses for physiological management. REMs can amplify in certain conditions, e.g. stress or injury. The location and timing of REMs determine how these signals are relayed by REM-detecting proteins into critical biological responses. Thus mapping REM proteins and clarifying their roles is essential for fundamental understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms. Growing evidence indicates that REM-signaling processes play key roles in improving wound healing following heart attack (which caused the death of 1.71 million people in the EU, making it the leading cause of death). Interestingly, some species, e.g. zebrafish, can regenerate their hearts after injury, whereas others, including humans, cannot. Evidence indicates that macrophages, components of the immune system, play crucial healing roles, regulated by REM-signals/pathways that support crosstalk between macrophages and injured heart. Unfortunately, context-specific REM-responders and signaling changes remain elusive. My host-laboratory has developed technologies that can identify and functionally investigate REM-responder proteins/pathways cell-specifically. With the support of the MSCA Fellowship, I will evolve and apply these technologies, for the first time, in state-of-the-art heart healing-relevant mechanistic models, to map cell-specific REM-responder proteins and study their mechanisms during macrophage-injured heart-cell crosstalk. My research promises breakthrough deliverables, including new models and discoveries across bioengineering, chemistry, biology, and life sciences. It could lead to innovative drug candidates and therapies boosting heart functions. The Fellowship support will allow me to advance my future independent career in academia.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
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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)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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.
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
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