The project "IndiHEART: Individual Cardiac Muscular Systems for Treating Cardiac Insufficiency" has been successful in the national innovation competition "Organersatz aus dem Labor" (laboratory-grown replacement organs). For a period of three years, IndiHEART will be in receipt of funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) amounting to two million euros. The project brings together the expertise of researchers from University Medical Centre Göttingen, Leibniz University Hannover, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research Göttingen. IndiHEART has been awarded the second place out of three projects that have been granted funding within the scope of the competition.
The research teams intend to establish a procedure for the automated production of human cardiac muscular tissue from pluripotent stem cells for treating patients suffering from cardiac insufficiency in order to develop a second generation of cardiac plasters for a wide range of applications.
Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) is represented by Prof. Dr. Tobias Ortmaier, head of the Institute of Mechatronic Systems. His team develops a control system to be used in robotic appliances that facilitate the automated production of individualised cardiac plasters. Based on image data, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization will develop simulations for visualising individual hearts of patients and determine the ideal size and tissue composition for digital patient hearts. Researchers from the Institute of Mechatronic Systems at LUH will use this data to develop an individualised control system for printing cardiac plasters.
