UK company Santorini Scientific participates in EU scientific excellence research
Santorini Scientific is a research-led organisation based at Birmingham Research Park, whose mission is to drive and implement medical advances which will allow heart transplant patients to live their lives to the fullest.
They have been accepted to participate in a 5M Euro European scientific study funded by Horizon Europe, an EU programme to further scientific research and innovation.
The project will help the 2 million people in Europe affected by heart disease every year.
Moving research into heart attacks to the next level
Founder of Santorini Scientific, entrepreneur and visionary Mike Adams, comments, “Heart disease remains a significant burden for society and the healthcare system. It has devastating effects on around 2 million European citizens annually and Santorini Scientific are proud to take part in a project which addresses such an important clinical need.
“We will be drawing on and developing the consortium’s expertise in 3D bioprinting in the cardiac field to imitate natural tissue to help ensure this groundbreaking project helps move research in heart disease to the next level.”
3D printing of biomaterials is recognised as having great potential to help move treatment of heart disease to a new level, increasing heart transplant availability, bringing down costs of pre and post operation treatment, and reducing likelihood of the body’s rejection of the new heart.
Research funded by EU’s scientific research excellence programme
Led by the University of Turin, Santorini Scientific, together with SMEs, Universities and large companies, are collaborating on the REBORN project: Remodelling of the infarcted heart: Piezoelectric multifunctional patch enabling the sequential release of therapeutic factors.
Over the next four years, the project aims to develop a patch to prevent heart failure in patients who have survived a heart attack, whilst simultaneously developing a lab-based in vitro cardiac chamber for testing its effectiveness in a laboratory environment.
Santorini Scientific’s first contribution to the project will be to identify the heart’s functions required to be repeated by the advanced ‘in vitro model’. This will mimic the structural and physiological properties of a human heart chamber as closely as possible, in order to accurately reflect how the patch would interact with a human heart.
The model will be 3D bioprinted using state-of-the-art bioprinting techniques which allow for greater cell density and higher levels of functionality than has ever been achieved before, whilst providing an alternative to animal models.
Allowing heart transplant patients to live their lives to the fullest
Mike Adams, Santorini Scientific founder, adds, “Project REBORN will advance and refine the technologies required to create a cardiac chamber, taking us one step closer to 3D bioprinting a human heart.”
He adds, “The REBORN project will strengthen Santorini Scientific’s knowledge of bioprinting of cardiac tissue and modelling diseased states of the heart, this is at the core of our mission to drive and implement medical advances which will allow heart transplant patients to live their lives to the fullest.”
Future developments
Santorini Scientific will also use its expertise in the regulatory field to contribute to having clear CE mark planning.
Results from the REBORN project will allow new products and business opportunities for the industry partners.
