Institutions

Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)

INSERM is a public institution with a scientific and technical vocation, under the dual auspices of the French Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Its researchers are committed to studying all human diseases, whether common or rare, through their research in the fields of biology, medicine, and public health.
INSERM will be represented in the HOMAGE consortium by 4 research groups which are the U 961 associated to the Centre d’Investigation Clinique (CIC) Pierre Drouin, the U 942, the U 1048 and the U744.

INSERM TRANSFERT SA (IT)

Founded in 2000, Inserm-Transfert SA is the private subsidiary of the French Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), dedicated to Technology Transfer and management of European and International collaborative research projects. The company possesses extensive expertise in two core areas: i) Intellectual Property management, Technology Transfer and exploitation of research results; ii) specific tools and gold standard methods for supporting scientists in their international project preparation and management (ex: 24 FP6 and 10 FP7 EC-funded projects are currently managed by the company). Inserm-Transfert SA has a strong expertise in the financial rules and all related contractual aspects of the FP7 program and has already established management links with almost all research organizations in Europe.

FONDATION TRANSPLANTATION (EDDH)

The Foundation Transplantation is a public-interest Foundation according to the decree of the Prime Minister dated May the 7th, 1992. The statuses of the Foundation have two axes, in terms of development of the substitution techniques of the vital functions: the management of health care institutions and the support for the biomedical research. The research part of the Fondation Transplantation supports students by several grants and has created research units in partnership with hospitals. These units are specialized in the design and the realization of clinical trials from the phase II to IV, on behalf of public or private sponsors.

ACS BIOMARKER B.V (ACS)

ACS Biomarker was established in Maastricht in 2007 as a spin-off company of Maastricht University. Recently the company established a new office and research facility in Amsterdam. The research of ACS Biomarker is focused on the discovery and validation of novel miRNA and protein-based cardiovascular BMs. ACS Biomarker was built on the discovery of the serological BM for heart failure, Galectin-3, which got FDA approved in 2010. ACS Biomarker has a close collaboration with two renowned cardiovascular institutes, the Heart Failure Research Center of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam and CARIM of the UMC Maastricht.

RANDOX TESTING SERVICE (RTS)

RTS is a spin-out company from Randox Laboratories Ltd and offers state of the art laboratory facilities that can analyse a wide-range of BMs. In addition, RTS contains within its laboratories a revolutionary technology known as biochip array technology (BAT). BAT is designed to measure multiple analytes from a single patient aliquot and is ideally suited to this type of project where the diagnosis and risk stratification of HF patients is likely to be improved by evaluation of a large number of BMs.

CHARITE - UNIVERSITAETSMEDIZIN BERLIN (CHARITE)

Charité - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin is the oldest and most prominent hospital and medical school in Berlin. Acting today as the medical school for both the Humboldt University and Freie Universitaet Berlin, Charité – Universitaetsmedizin Berlin is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe with medicine, research and teaching at the top international level. It extends over four campuses with almost 100 clinics and institutes bundled under 17 CharitéCenters and is one of Germany's most research-intensive medical institutions. In 2010, Charité – Universitaetsmedizin Berlin celebrated its 300-year anniversary.

UNIVERSITY OF KEELE (KE)

Keele University was established in 1949 and gained independent status in 1992. It has the UK’s largest integrated campus. With a turnover of £120m (€147m), 820 academic staff and 9,400 students, Keele makes a significant contribution to the local economy (£196m/€241m in 2011) and generates around £40m (€49m) of business in the region. Keele’s founders espoused radical educational principles and the university was founded to promote interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary scholarship. To this day, the majority of undergraduates pursue a dual-honours degree structure, unusual in the UK, and this probably contributes to their exceptional employability (93% in 2012). Keele has recently been rated the best in the country by the National Student Survey of UK universities for overall student satisfaction. Keele was voted in the top 10 of Britain’s most intellectually stimulating universities by the Daily Telegraph (2012) and has been placed amongst the world’s top universities in the Times Higher Education World University (top 1.75%).  It is the highest ranked university in the UK for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey.

FUNDACION PARA LA INVESTIGACION MEDICA APLICADA (FIMA)

The Foundation for Applied Medical Research (FIMA) in collaboration with the University of Navarra and the UTE created a research centre in health sciences, the Centro de Investigación Médica Aplicada (CIMA). FIMA has extended experience in managing research projects, offering a professional environment with widely available support in the area of project management and financial affairs.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (UCD)

The participating unit from within UCD is the Heart Failure Unit (HFU) at St Vincent’s University Hospital, a teaching hospital associated with the university. The HFU is a unit dedicated to delivery of care to patients with or at risk for heart failure. The unit has an established record in translational research in methods of heart failure care delivery, BMs in heart failure and prevention of heart failure focusing on identification of risk characteristics highlighting susceptibility. The HFU has a clinical unit providing care for 4,000 patient with or at-risk for heart failure. In association, the unit is linked with a Biomedical Research unit at UCD where BM and other related research is performed.

UNIVERSITY OF HULL (HULL)

Founded in 1927, the University of Hull is the 14th oldest university in England and consistently ranks in the top 10 in England in the National Students Survey. It has a strong tradition in both the Arts and Sciences and has over 20,000 students and 2,500 staff. The University has a strong reputation for research, including the discovery of Liquid Crystal technology. In the latest research assessment exercise, Medicine was ranked in the highest category and as of an internationally excellent standard. The Hull York Medical School (HYMS) was founded in 2003. The Department of Cardiology within HYMS has an international reputation on many aspects of heart failure and hosts one of the largest,  high-granularity longitudinal epidemiological data-bases of heart failure in the world (The Hull LifeLab) with >30,000 patient-years of follow-up. It also led two international surveys of heart failure, in primary and secondary care, that enrolled >20,000 patients.

UNIVERSITY OF MAASTRICHT School for Cardiovascular Diseases (CARIM) (UM)

CARIM is a specialised multi-disciplinary research institute of Maastricht University. It is an internationally recognized centre of expertise for cardiovascular research and training, with 65 staff members, 35 post-docs, 86 PhD students and 80 technicians. CARIM’s research program focuses on 3 main themes: 1) cardiac function and adaptation (with a focus on molecular mechanisms of heart failure, 2) vascular biology and 3) thrombosis and haemostasis,. CARIM offers an excellent and well-organized multidisciplinary research environment for the development of innovative techniques and studies on diastolic and systolic heart failure and its co-morbidities within the Research Group of Cardiology.

ISTITUTO DI RICERCHE FARMACOLOGICHE MARIO NEGRI (IRFMN)

The Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research (IRFMN) is a not-for-profit biomedical research organization founded in 1961. The main research headings are the battle against cancer, nervous and mental illnesses, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, rare diseases and the toxic effects of environmental contaminants. The Institute is also involved in research on pain relief and drug addiction, and employs 600 people mostly in research.

MEDIZINISCHE HOCHSCHULE HANNOVER (MHH)

The Hannover Medical School (MHH), founded in 1965, is one of the world's leading university medical centres. Due to its interdisciplinary research MHH has strong collaborative links with many academic and industrial research organizations worldwide. MHH concentrates its research activities to unravel basic mechanisms which will be, in close collaboration with clinical facilities, translated into clinical research. Building on a broad expertise in medicine, immunology, biochemistry, structural biology, genetics, cell biology and infectiology, MHH scientists study human diseases and develop innovative strategies for diagnosis, prevention and therapy. The main research activities focus on transplantation and stem cell research, cardiovascular biology, immunology as well as biomedical technology and implants.

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN (KUL)

Founded in 1425, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven bears the double honour of being the oldest existent catholic university in the world and the oldest university in the Low Countries. The University of Leuven is also the largest in Belgium.

LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE (LSHTM)

 The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is one of Europe’s leading schools of Public Health and a leading postgraduate institution worldwide for research and postgraduate education in global health. Part of the University of London, the London School is the largest institution of its kind in Europe with a remarkable depth and breadth of expertise encompassing many disciplines. The School was ranked one of the top 3 research institutions in the country in the Times Higher Education’s 'table of excellence', which is based on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). In 2009, the School became the first UK institution to win the Gates Award for Global Health.

STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY (Stony Brook) 

Stony Brook Medicine is a 603-bed tertiary care facility and full-service, teaching hospital with a 10-bed Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, a 10-bed Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit, and 20-bed Trauma/surgival Intensive Care unit, provides care for over 32,000 inpatients and 254,700 outpatients per annum. The medical staff is comprised of full-time faculty of the School of Medicine who, along with State professional staff, carry out the goals of patient care, and teaching. Research activities taking place under the auspices of the state institution are contractually and fiscally overseen by the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, a private non-profit state-wide agency. By training nearly 500 medical students and over 480 medical residents and fellows eahc year, Stony Brook is one of the foremost institutes of higher medical education in US. Stony Brook Medicine is recognized regionally for its work in cardiology and heart-related diseases. 

UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW (UG)

The University of Glasgow undertakes leading-edge, internationally-competitive research and is a major research powerhouse with an annual research income of more than £116m. In the latest independent UK research survey, RAE 2008, nearly 70% of the University's research was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.

MOSAIQUES DIAGNOSTICS (MOS)

MOS has developed and is the leading specialist in clinical proteome and capillary electrophoresis mass spectometry (CE - MS) analysis. MOS has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals on its proprietary technology and filed over 40 patent applications, further underlining the leading role of this European SME. MOS is currently the only institution worldwide that can reproducibly analyse hundreds of urine or plasma samples with mass spectometry in a short time. MOS has developed proprietary hardware for analysis and software solutions for data evolution.