Unlocking Heart Healing: From Zebrafish Insights to Human Therapies

This project brings together a public-private partnership between the Hubrecht Institute, PacingCure, and Myogene to explore innovative solutions for heart regeneration. Our goal is to harness the natural healing ability of zebrafish hearts to create groundbreaking therapies that can restore damaged human hearts, improving outcomes for patients with heart failure.

Heart failure is a leading health problem affecting over 860,000 people in the Netherlands and 38 million worldwide. It often develops after a heart attack, when millions of heart muscle cells die, leaving scar tissue that cannot contract or pump blood effectively. Current treatments only manage symptoms but do not address the root cause—cell loss and impaired heart function. This creates an urgent need for new therapies that can regenerate the heart and restore its function.

Our research will use cutting-edge technologies to study how zebrafish naturally regenerate heart muscle. We aim to identify key genes and mechanisms responsible for this regeneration and test their potential in human and pig models. By collaborating with experts in gene therapy and cardiac regeneration, we aim to develop a gene-based therapy that can reawaken the dormant regenerative ability of the human heart.

The deliverables of this project include detailed insights into heart regeneration mechanisms and the development of gene delivery methods optimized for safety and efficacy. Ultimately, the project’s success could pave the way for new regenerative treatments, offering hope for millions of heart failure patients and contributing to better healthcare outcomes.