LIH is a partner in CARDIATEAM, a large translational research project funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative IMI2, aiming to find novel biomarkers to diagnose and treat diabetic cardiomyopathy. The institute will contribute with its recognised knowledge in RNA biomarker identification and validation, omics data analysis and biobanking.
Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) can cause functional and structural changes in the heart in the absence of coronary artery disease. This leads to a cardiac dysfunction named “diabetic cardiomyopathy” (DCM) that can ultimately cause heart failure and death. At present, there is no effective therapy available for DCM.
The CARDIATEAM project, led by INSERM in France, kicked off at the end of March 2019 and will run for five years. The consortium comprises 22 partners - research institutes, hospitals and industries - from nine European countries. CARDIATEAM will tackle important research questions: Does T2DM represent a central mechanism contributing to the pathogenesis and progression of DCM? Is the disorder unique and distinct from other forms of heart failure? With its translational dimension, CARDIATEAM will lead to tangible research findings from which patients can benefit. The project proposes to stratify T2DM patients at risk, to decipher specific underlying mechanisms that might enable an early and more precise diagnosis of DCM and to identify potential drug targets.
At LIH, Dr Yvan Devaux’s team from the Cardiovascular Research Unit will be involved in the analysis of transcriptomics and other omics data generated from patient blood samples. The Unit has long-term expertise in RNA biomarker discovery and validation that will be essential for the project. IBBL - Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg will play a pivotal role as the central biobank. It will be responsible for the collection of blood samples from recruiting centres, storage and re-distribution of samples to relevant analytical centres. It will also provide Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for sample collection and analyse the quality of a portion of the samples to ensure their fitness-for-purpose for downstream omics analyses.
A more detailed press release is available in English, French and German.