Heart researcher wins 'Dragons' Den' medical award

Prestigious award will help researchers to develop cutting-edge heart treatment - News

By Lucy Goodchild
Wednesday 3 December 2008

A top cardiovascular researcher who is trying to harness the body's own mechanisms to help the heart repair itself has won a prestigious award to help turn his research into a treatment for heart disease patients.

The Translational Research Innovation Award for Cardiology will help Professor Michael Schneider, Chair in Cardiology and Head of Cardiovascular Science at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, develop the technology and bring it to clinical trials.

The award is one of the Medical Futures Awards, which have been dubbed the 'medical equivalent of Dragons' Den' after the BBC programme in which would-be entrepreneurs pitch ideas in front of a panel of judges. Professor Schneider collected his award at a ceremony held in London last night.

When a person has a heart attack, up to half of the cells that make up the heart muscle can be wiped out suddenly. This happens because there is a lack of blood flow to the heart, which starves the organ of oxygen. The heart can also suffer cumulative damage during heart disease when muscle cells die sporadically over a long period of time.

Professor Schneider's team is focusing on regenerating heart muscle cells, either by using stem cells or very rare progenitor cells his group discovered in the adult heart. Progenitor cells in the heart are specially poised to develop into heart cells. By harnessing their power to regenerate tissue, Professor Schneider hopes to develop a new treatment for heart disease patients.

 

"We have found a safe, non-toxic way to purify heart progenitor cells, which we hope to develop into a treatment. The award will help us test these cells in animals, under clinically relevant conditions, to obtain the safety data we need to take the treatment into clinical trials."

Professor Schneider described the awards process: "It was very much like Dragons' Den. First we provided a brief written synopsis of the clinical need we are working to address: the failure of heart muscles to grow back after an attack and the failure of bone marrow and thigh stem cells to regenerate lost heart muscle. Then we presented our research to a panel of expert judges."

For Professor Schneider, getting through the process was a big achievement. The judging panel included the Medical Director of the NHS and the head of the British Cardiovascular Society.

Professor Schneider's team is focusing on regenerating heart muscle cells

Professor Schneider, who holds the British Heart Foundation's Simon Marks Chair, said: "The level of grilling was terrific. The judges' questions were very pointed and on target, and they addressed things we think about every day."

Professor Schneider said he was thrilled with the news: "It's terrific recognition, in part because of the caliber of the people who undertake the reviews. It was a panel of the best of the best. Winning the award is also gratifying because the recognition is at a later and more directly applied stage than is typical for an academic research grant. This shows the readiness and commercial maturity of our ideas."

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