Bioengineering platelets for cardiac repair

This is a revision of application SP/F/20/150011, which now incorporates a clinical academic cardiology partner, focus on platelet granules, and a tighter timeline (30 months) to allow for more rapid translation and reduced overall cost.

Although platelets clearly play a critical role in haemostasis and thrombosis, their ability to release a cocktail of pro-repair content places them in prime position for therapeutic exploitation in the treatment of ischaemic cardiac damage.

We are now at a critical juncture in the development of technologies to exploit this potential, where we have a comprehensive understanding of their releasable content, principally from granules, and where bioengineering of platelets is genuinely now possible.

This is the basis of this application, bringing together the complementary expertise of four groups (Poole & Hers, Bristol; Ghevaert, Cambridge; Chico, Sheffield) to generate bioengineered platelets to enhance repair of cardiac tissue after infarction.

The bioengineering will involve editing in pro-repair genes, targeted for delivery through granule release, enhancement of damage site homing function, and disabled prothrombotic genes.

Our vision is to generate a novel humanised product that can progress to the next translational phase of development, for the management of myocardial infarction (MI) and heart failure post-MI.