BioInsights talks to Prof. Philippe Menasché, Cardiac Surgeon, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, France

Dr Philippe Menasché is currently cardiac surgeon at the Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Professor of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Paris Descartes, and Co-director of an INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) team devoted to cell therapy of cardiovascular diseases. The group has a long-standing interest in stem cells for the treatment of heart failure and has therefore developed small and large animal (including nonhuman primate) models of myocardial infarction and dilated cardiomyopathy. While the initial research has focused, both experimentally and clinically, on the transplantation of skeletal myoblasts, it has now moved towards the combination of cardiac progenitors derived from human embryonic stem cells (ESC) with a tissue engineering-based construct. The first-in-man implantations of this cell-loaded patch are now underway. In parallel to this phase I clinical trial, the group is increasingly looking at cell biomimetics with the objective of a streamlined clinical translation