During the last decade we created a research lab at the Department of Cardiac surgery with the vision to build a translational research group pursuing excellence in translational cardiovascular science following the best international examples.
Our interdisciplinary team comprises of biochemists, molecular biologists, bioinformaticians, mathematicians and the most talented future physician scientists. This interdisciplinary composition has led to a positioning of the lab to participate in international consortia as a research partner in the area of regenerative medicine and pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease.
Our research focuses on the understanding of pathomechanisms of cardiovascular disease in order to develop new treatment strategies. The topics include myocardial regeneration, spinal cord ischemia, heart valve calcification and perioperative myocardial injury. The strategy of my research lab is to find new treatment targets. Our research led to numerous patents and a close collaboration with not only some of the best researchers in Europe and the US, but also with the international Biotech and Medtech industry. Thereby, our efforts to realize translation led to the additional development of a clinical research team focusing on all aspects to conduct randomized controlled clinical trials, of which we today have several running in parallel at our department. This includes single-center as well as multi-center trials.
The translational progress of our current projects is depicted below:
The future of cardiac surgery depends on intrinsic innovative research, beyond retrospective or industry-driven studies to challenge the limits of cardiac surgery and to develop the patient care of tomorrow.
