XenExoCor
A Leducq Foundation International Network of Excellence

Problem: Advanced heart failure is common, deadly and warrants novel therapies. The only curative therapy is cardiac allotransplantation but it is limited due to the shortage of donor organs.

Approach: Using genetically engineered pigs, the long-range goals and clinical significance of this proposal are to engineer and compare the function and immunogenicity of a porcine cardiac xenograft versus a completely humanized vasculature.

Who: We have assembled an outstanding international team of experts that will provide complementary expertise in order to accelerate our research and amplify our efforts to achieve our research goals. Further, the training opportunities, within this network, will not only build research careers but also promote collaborative interactions resulting in an acceleration of discoveries emerging from the network.

Goal: These humanized hearts will be evaluated as an unlimited source of organs for cardiac transplantation and will revolutionize the field of cardiac transplantation by providing unlimited donor sources for hearts that will be transplanted into patients with end-stage heart failure.