Around 400,000 people in Germany suffer a heart attack each year. In a fifth of those affected, this leads to a complex process of restructuring in the heart. In an attempt to compensate for the damage, heart muscle cells grow and enlarge. The heart’s volume increases, but the force with which it pumps decreases. This pathological process can eventually lead to heart failure. In a seminal study, Prof. Thomas Thum and his team at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) have demonstrated that microRNAs – short, non-coding RNA strands – play a significant role in this process. In-vivo studies have shown that when certain microRNAs are inactivated using complementary oligonucleotides, the restructuring process can not only be stopped, but actually reversed. The heart returns to its normal size and regains its usual pumping efficiency. This could represent a breakthrough for thousands of patients. Ascenion recognized the potential of this research at an early stage, and worked intensively with Prof. Thum and his entrepreneurial team to launch the spin-off Cardior Pharmaceuticals from the MHH. Approximately one man-year of development work – co-financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the Spinnovator Programme – formed a significant contribution to the foundation in 2016. Further external consultation led to the closure of a EUR 15 million financing round in May 2017, representing a key milestone in the research company’s operational implementation.
(Annual Review 2017)
