TRAIN-HEART NETWORK

The TRAIN-HEART network brings together leading academic teams and (biotech) companies to train the next-generation of innovation-minded researchers who can expand the scientific horizons and accelerate future development of RNA-based therapeutics for the treatment of ischemic heart failure. Under chronic cardiac stress, non-coding RNAs, in particular microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs, act as critical regulators of cardiac tissue remodelling. Innovative therapies targeting these RNA molecules hold great promise in treating the underlying causes of ischemic heart failure. With the exception of heart transplantation, there is no curative therapy available for this detrimental disease. Given the challenges related to delivery, specificity and tolerability of RNA therapeutics, developments in chemically modified oligonucleotides and drug delivery strategies are growing substantially. The TRAIN-HEART’s proposition is to train a league of 15 promising fellows that harness novel insights in the pathogenesis of ischemic heart failure, study the therapeutic potential of existing RNA therapeutics and improve its efficacy by the design of novel drug delivery systems.

The duration of the program is 48 months, consisting of 15 individual research projects of 36 monhs each. The TRAIN-HEART programme starts on 1 June 2019.