PLN Foundation
Support Us
  • Scientists
  • Contact
  • English
    • Dutch
  • PLN Foundation
    • PLN Foundation
    • About Us
    • PLN Monstertocht
    • Polls
    • Contact
    • Complaints procedure
  • What is PLN?
    • What is PLN?
    • PLN Factsheet
    • COVID-19
  • Research
    • Research
    • Crazy Idea Calls
    • Scientists
  • PLN Foundation
    • PLN Foundation
    • About Us
    • PLN Monstertocht
    • Polls
    • Contact
    • Complaints procedure
  • What is PLN?
    • What is PLN?
    • PLN Factsheet
    • COVID-19
  • Research
    • Research
    • Crazy Idea Calls
    • Scientists
  • English
    • Dutch

PLN Foundation. Foundation of patients for patients.

Crazy Idea Calls

plnheart.org Crazy Idea Calls

Back to home
  • Share this
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • email

Crazy Idea sessions

The medical world is evolving rapidly, we want to remain flexible with the research project and also take advantage of new developments. That is why our Foundation organises a “Crazy Ideas” session twice a year, national and international. During this session we ask medical scientists to come up with alternative ideas to make the disease caused by the PLN mutation treatable. For each session, we make a budget available to follow up on the best idea. At the end of a “Crazy Ideas” session, it is immediately announced which researcher is granted the budget. Please see below some of the Crazy Ideas grants.

Call for 2020: read here  for applications!

Crazy Ideas 2019 | Dr. Sakthivel Sadayappan

The proposal of Dr. Sakthivel Sadayappan concerns the investigation of the sarcomeer (smallest contractile unit in the heart muscle cell) in isolated heart muscle cells from mouse hearts.

Crazy Ideas 2019 | Allen Teng

The proposal by PhD student Allen Teng from Toronto is about breaking PLN within the cell.

Crazy Ideas 2019 | Tom Bracco Gartner & Renee Maas

Tom Bracco Gartner and Renée Maas won the European Crazy Idea Call. They will try to establish a human in vitro 3D model for cardiac fibrosis.

Crazy Ideas 2018 | Karim Taha & Arco Teske

In December 2018 the Crazy Idea emphasis was on “early detection”. The winner was the project “Early Detection of contractile dysfunction in Phospholamban mutation carriers with echocardiographic deformation” by Karim Taha and Arco Teske. Using algorithms and image recognition software, the researchers will analyze echo images at certain places in the heart that are missed by the human eye. This technique will allow ultrasound images from the past five years to be analyzed again to see whether the onset of the disease could have been detected earlier. By now, we know better where in the heart the disease usually develops. With this software it is possible to look at this even more specifically. The software can also be used in the future, when the first therapies are tested on patients. Echocardiogram is a simple and less stressful examination for patients and one that could measure the effect of the therapy in this way.

Crazy Ideas 2018 | Niels Grote Beverborg

In spring 2018, a Crazy Idea Call was awarded to Niels Grote Beverborg for a project with Antisense therapy. Antisense is a treatment that inhibits the creation of the entire PLN gene (both the good and the mutated part). His research focuses on an experimental drug from the manufacturers AstraZeneca and Ionis.

Crazy Ideas 2018 | Patricia Vanhooydonck - vd Hoogen

Patricia Vanhooydonck -vd Hoogen investigated if inflammatory reactions in the heart have an important role in causing PLN carriers to fall ill. For her research, she uses the blood that we have collected during the last PLN days.

Update:

Patricia Vanhooydonck-vd Hoogen will obtain her PhD at Utrecht University on  September 14. For the past 4 years, as a PhD student at Experimental Cardiology at UMC Utrecht, she has been researching one of the possible processes that play an important role in the development of heart failure, namely the inflammatory response. Partly thanks to the support of the PLN foundation, she has investigated the presence of an inflammatory response and inflammatory cells in heart tissue and blood from PLN carriers with heart failure. The goal of her thesis is to distinguish the cells that are involved in the chronic inflammatory response and may be involved in the development of heart failure, with the aim of developing new starting points for therapy.

Patricia currently works as a Project manager at the Netherlands Heart Institute. In her new role, she is still enthusiastically involved with the PLN foundation and the ongoing investigations.

We wish Patricia the best of luck!

Crazy Ideas 2017 - Dr. Anke Tijssen

Dr. Anke Tijsen works in Amsterdam UMC with the silencing technology. They try to label the mutated cell so they can interfere.

Crazy Odeas 2017 - Prof. Antonio Zaza

Treatment of people (with other heart problems) with Istaroxime is already permitted, but because the half-life of the drug is short, it must be infused. Long-term treatment causes (fatal) poisoning symptoms, which means that it can only be used for a short period of time. Prof. Antonio Zaza approached us from the University of Milano Bicocca in Italy. In collaboration with the manufacturer of the drug, he has developed analogues of Istaroxime that have a longer half- life and no longer have a toxic side effect. For additional research with these analogues, heart muscle cells from Stanford have also been made available to him.

You are here: plnheart.org Crazy Idea Calls

  • Share this
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • email

Join the fight against
PLN Genetic Heart Disease

By sponsoring our PLN transatlantic research project, you will be investing in a unique opportunity to accelerate the development of a curative treatment for heart disease.

Support Us

PLN Foundation. Foundation of patients for patients.

PLN Foundation

Our Foundation has been established by volunteers or people suffering from PLN, family members and their loved ones, and tries to inform PLN gene carriers as much as possible about the latest developments and PLN studies.

The foundation:

  • About Us
  • Patients contact
  • PLN Monstertocht
  • Latest News
  • Polls

Links:

  • Privacy Statement
  • Cookie Statement
  • Disclaimer
  • Colofon
  • Sitemap
Help us to overcome this genetic cardiomyopathy PLN.
Support Us and become a sponsor!
Copyright © 2021 PLN Genetic Heart Disease Foundation | Website: PLN Foundation
  • Scientists
  • Contact
Go to Top
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.