Life Valve

The general objective of the LifeValve project is to develop a new therapeutic strategy to treat heart valve disease. In particular, the development of a tissue engineered living heart valve, with the capacity of growth in accordance with the growths of children, which can be implanted without an operation by using minimally invasive catheter technology. The reason for first focussing on paediatric applications is twofold: First, a novel, tissue engineered living heart valve with the potential for growth is addressing a clearly unmet medical need in congenital heart disease. All contemporary solutions with conventional heart valve prostheses are insufficient, do not provide a sustainable treatment and as a consequence create suffering and substantial socioeconomic costs. Second, successful use and increasing clinical experience within the paediatric patient population as entry indication will allow extending the clinical application to the much larger adult patient population with degenerative heart valve disease in a later stage of the project.