Dr Menno ter Huurne was recently awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions award (MSCA) from the European Union.
Dr Menno ter Huurne, from reNEW Melbourne’s Heart Regeneration and Disease group at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, was recently awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions award (MSCA) from the European Union.
Part of Horizon Europe, the MSCA are the European Union’s flagship funding program for doctoral education and postdoctoral training. MSCA fund excellent research and innovation and equip researchers at all stages of their career with new knowledge and skills, through mobility across borders and exposure to different sectors and disciplines.
The fellowships provide funding for 2-year research projects.
The MSCA will enable Dr ter Huurne to join Professor Christine Mummery‘s group in reNEW Leiden and collaborate on research towards a regenerative therapy for heart failure.
Heart failure is a major global public health problem affecting over 23 million patients worldwide. There are no effective therapies for heart failure that regenerate the damaged heart muscle following injury, such as following a heart attack.
Dr ter Huurne’s research aims to develop a novel therapy to stimulate heart regeneration.
“The adult heart has very limited capacity to regenerate, as the heart muscle cells, called cardiomyocytes, are unable to replicate.
With my extensive training and expertise in molecular and stem cell biology, I plan to identify proteins that can be harnessed to induce cardiomyocyte replication” said Dr ter Huurne.
“The MSCA funding will enable me to integrate within the Mummery group in Leiden, combining our expertise and help advance treatments for patients suffering from heart failure.”