Leona Markova
Working at CONTIPRO (CNT)
The Advanced Materials for CArdiac REgeneration (AMCARE) project is a consortium of academic and industrial partners, which has received funding from the 7th European Union (EU) Framework Programme to develop regenerative therapeutics for the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI).
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, killing an estimated 17 million people each year. The European Society of Cardiology estimates that “every sixth man and every seventh woman in Europe will die from myocardial infarction (McMurray et al., 2012).
The AMCARE consortium will develop a novel suite of bio-interactive Hyaluronan (HA) based materials and on-demand drug release systems to Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC)-Derived Cardiopoietic Cells in a protected fashion to the harsh environment of the post-MI ischemic myocardium (Figure 1).