PersonalizeAF - Personalized Therapies for Atrial Fibrillation. A Translational Approach
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia affecting more than 6 million Europeans and accounts for around 1% of European health care systems’ budgets.
The introduction of new available treatment strategies (oral anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic agents, ablation approaches), and the notable progress in research on AF mechanisms (role of rotors, fibroblast coupling, genetics and transcriptome) and substrate evaluation methods (late-gadolinium magnetic MRI, high density intracavitary and surface electroanatomic mapping), have not been accompanied by the knowledge and technologies necessary to individually characterise each patient in search of the most efficient approach.
Addressing the translation of basic research to the clinical practice, the proposed training network PERSONALIZE-AF will bring together top European academic and clinical institutions with highly specialised biomedical companies in order to innovate and train young scientists and engineers in all aspects related to diagnosis and treatment of AF, developing novel strategies for individualised characterisation of AF substrate to facilitate the work of clinicians and increase the efficacy of treatments.
This objective will be achieved by integrating data and knowledge from in-vitro, in silico, ex vivo and in vivo animal and human models. These disease models will be employed
(1) to determine the role of electrical and structural substrate on AF mechanisms,
(2) to increase the stratification efficiency by incorporating into the decision-making protocols patient-specific markers of atrial electrical and mechanical function and
(3) to improve treatment efficacy by guiding individualised pharmacological and real-time controlled ablation therapies.
Principal Investigator
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