Research

(For scientists: click here)

The PLN Foundation connects researchers worldwide, motivates research, stimulates and finances young talent and out-of-the-box ideas. Our Foundation finances pioneering research. Obtaining funds for pioneering research is difficult. Thanks to our funding, the research can start. After positive results money can be obtained from other funds. In this way we follow new developments and insights into science.

An important argument for our projects, is the spin-off which largely consists of a deeper understanding of the workings of the heartmuscle cell and particularly the functioning of the balance of calcium which makes the heartmuscle contract and relax. This may possibly also be applied when finding treatment methods for heartfailure, one of the main causes of death worldwide.

Below you can read more about our scientific research projects.

Transatlantic project | 2017 - present

During the first years, scientific research projects were initiated and financially supported in the Netherlands in order to gain more insight in this disease. The PLN  Foundation came up with the plan to establish a transatlantic collaborative project in order to try and find a treatment for this life-threatening disease.

The project involves the establishment of a unique collaboration between 3 academic medical centers in the Netherlands (Amsterdam UMC, UMC Groningen and UMC Utrecht) and 3 academic medical centers in the United States of America (Mount Sinai Hospital New York, Stanford University, California and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine). This way, the best of the best in the field of knowledge and experience with the PLN mutation and the most technologically innovative institutes are brought together. Initially they will be working in parallel on 3 possible solutions:

Gene therapy: trying to replace the defective PLN-protein by adding a healthy one, through means of inserting genetic material.

Drug therapy: investigating whether existing drugs or specific molecules have a favorable impact on the PLN-mutation. The benefit of this therapy is that the valuable time of development, testing and having a new drug approved could be saved. For this purpose, an ultramodern robotized laboratory is available in the USA.

Stemcell therapy: inserting healthy stemcells in the heartmuscle so that new and active heartmuscle cells can be formed there. This therapy did not give the wanted results and therefor it was  decided to focus on the other two therapies and gene-silencing. Gene-silencing is is the regulation of expression of a gene  in a cell to prevent the negative expression of that certain gene.

The most important part of the research project will take place in America and will be supported by sending talented young medical scientists from the Netherlands who also will be financially supported. They will take knowledge back to the Netherlands. The other part will take place in the Netherlands.

The management of the research project is conducted by the Netherlands Heart Institute, a unique collaborative platform of the Cardiology departments of all academic medical centers in the Netherlands. Within this institute, Prof. Dr. Doevendans is responsible for the overall supervision of this project.

The CURE-PLaN project has led to some duplication with this existing project. The Netherlands Heart Institute has been working with us to remove these duplications from the project and to coordinate the two initiatives. Our goal is to support efficient initiatives that strengthen and accelerate the overall project.

CURE-PLaN project | 2019 - present

Mid 2018, Fondation Leducq awarded USD 6 million for a PLN-focused international research plan, the CURE-PLaN. This project officially started on January 1st, 2019. The team is a transatlantic team brought together by our Foundation, consisting of researchers from UMC Groningen, Amsterdam UMC, UMC Utrecht, New York Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Cincinnati and Stanford University (Mercola Lab). This team was further strengthened with researchers from Greece, United Kingdom and Germany. The researchers meet twice a year to discuss research and share progress.

Prof. dr. E. (Litsa) Kranias is the US Coordinator of the project and 
Prof. dr. P.A.F.M. (Pieter) Doevendans is the EU Coordinator of the project. 

Crazy Ideas | 2017 - present

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.

Here you can read more about the Crazy Ideas research

This overview is far from complete, but gives a good impression of what is happening and where our PLN Foundation is involved. In order to achieve a treatment method for PLN, a lot of work still has to be done and a lot of money is needed. Do you support us?