The scale of cardiac diseases, and in particular heart failure and acute myocardial infarction, emphasises the need for radically new approaches, such as cell therapy, to address the underlying cause of the disease, the loss of functional myocardium. Stem cell-based therapies, whether through transplanted cells or directing innate repair, may provide regenerative approaches to cardiac diseases by halting, or even reversing, the events responsible for progression of organ failure. Cardio3 BioSciences, a leading Belgian biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of regenerative and protective therapies for the treatment of cardiac disease, was founded in this context in 2004. The company is developing a highly innovative cell therapy approach based on a platform designed to reprogramme the patient’s own stem cells into cardiac progenitor cells. The underlying rationale behind this approach is that, in order to reconstruct cardiac tissue, stem cells need to be specific to cardiac tissue. The key is therefore to provide cardiac-specific progenitor cells to the failing heart to induce cardiac repair.
