Diederik Kuster and Carol Ann Remme received a Eurostars grant for their project on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). The department of Physiology and Experimental Cardiology will work together to optimize screening protocols in induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes.

The CARDIOMYO consortium consists of Amsterdam UMC and the two companies ZeClinics (Spain) and Taros Chemicals (Germany). Together we will establish a platform to screen compounds that can improve function in HCM and DCM. The role of Amsterdam UMC is to optimize screening protocols in induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs). We will focus on contractile phenotype (Diederik Kuster, Physiology) and electrophysiology (Carol Ann Remme, Experimental Cardiology). We will screen 300 compounds in both HCM and DCM cell lines. The most promising hits will be further validated in zebrafish models (ZeClinics). The top hits from that additional screen will be further optimized to increase pharmacological properties of the compounds for clinical use by Taros Chemicals.  

Eurostars is a European innovation program and an initiative of EUREKA and the European Commission. Eurostars provides projects with financial support through the national government of each participating country. Eurostars helps (small) companies to carry out market-oriented technological development. Eurostars aims to reduce the time-to-market of these new technologies and reduce technical risks. The 2021 round is expected to open mid December 2020 and is expected to close on January 13, 2021.