A researcher has won a major grant to help develop techniques that will enable successful pig-to-human heart transplants.
Dr Philip Cardiff, associate professor at University College Dublin School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, has received the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator funding, worth two million Euros, for his five-year project XenoSim.
XenoSim: Providing Computational Insights into Cardiac Xenotransplantation’ will examine the emerging field of cardiac xenotransplantation through the development and application of novel high-resolution, higher order, multiphysics simulation methods.
Xenotransplantation has been in development for years, but thanks to rapid progress in gene editing, it is now becoming a reality.
Achieving long-term success requires an in-depth understanding of the physiological and mechanical challenges introduced by the anatomically dissimilar xenotransplants.
Dr Cardiff said: “We stand on the threshold of a groundbreaking medical era where pig-to-human heart transplants are becoming a reality.
“From an engineering standpoint, pig hearts share similarities with their human counterparts in terms of ‘pump design’; however, their distinct size, shape, and functional characteristics introduce important differences that can impact their performance within the human body.
“With the support of this ERC Consolidator grant, we aim to unlock invaluable insights into these differences by developing advanced biomechanical computational models.
“This pioneering research promises to offer not only unprecedented insights into the cutting-edge realm of cardiac xenotransplantation but also to establish pioneering computational techniques with significant implications for a wide range of scientific disciplines.”
Professor Maria Leptin, president of the ERC, said: “ERC Consolidator grants support researchers at a crucial time of their careers, strengthening their independence, reinforcing their teams and helping them establish themselves as leaders in their fields. And this backing above all gives them a chance to pursue their scientific dreams.”
ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded to help scientists with seven-12 years’ experience after their PhDs, to pursue their most promising ideas.
They are worth €657 million and they will create about 1950 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and other staff at host institutions around Europe.
The XenoSim team will employ three postdoctoral researchers, three PhD students and one research assistant.
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