This year, the German University Medicine Award goes to a research team for a globally unique approach: the ‘heart patch’ – a therapy using stem cells to repair the heart muscle and strengthen the heart permanently.
The study is a prime example of translational research, from the laboratory to clinical application, and takes a completely new approach to the treatment of one of the most common heart diseases: Patients with heart failure were implanted with heart tissue grown in the laboratory as part of a study conducted by the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH).
MBExC member Prof. Dr. Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann, Director of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, UMG, is the scientific director of the BioVAT-HF-DZHK20 (Biological Ventricular Assist Tissue in Terminal Heart Failure) clinical trial, in which patients have been treated since March 2021.
German University Medicine Award goes to research team for the ‘heart patch’
Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hubertus Zimmermann, Director of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University Medical Center Göttingen and scientific director of the BioVAT-HF-DZHK20 study. Photo: MBExC / spförtner
