Jeffrey Kroon (department of Experimental Vascular Medicine) received a Eurostars grant for their project on developing a first-in-class antibody therapy to combat Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury (M-IRI). 

In the Eurostars MYOAB project, the consortium, consisting of Oxitope Pharma, YUMAB and Hannover Medical School will develop, a first-in-class monoclonal antibody therapy to target M-IRI in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). ACS is a severe condition affecting 132M people worldwide, representing 1.8M deaths per year. Current standard-of-care focuses on timely reperfusion and prevention, yet there is NO therapy to prevent or reduce myocardial damage inflicted by the reperfusion process. Such damage can account for 50% of the final heart infarct size and can lead to chronic heart failure and death. As a result, mortality (22% within the first year) and morbidity following ACS events remain significant. During this project, the developed antibodies (YUMAB) will be assessed in-vitro (Amsterdam UMC) and in-vivo (Hannover Medical School). The final product is a candidate that will be tested further in safety- and toxicology studies.

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.