Tissue engineered vascular grafts for bypass surgery

Associate Professor Daniel Heath, The University of Melbourne

Vanguard Grant - 2 Year

Years funded: 2025 - 2027

Developing tissue engineered vascular grafts for bypass surgery

This research is driven by the relevant clinical problems of patients suffering coronary heart disease and peripheral vascular disease, many of whom are treated with autologous bypass surgery. These surgeries are complex and create a second wound on the patient with associated morbidity. Additionally, patients with co-morbidities such as diabetes or who have had previous bypass surgery may not have suitable autologous vessels for transplant. This patient group is highly vulnerable and have few treatment options.

Addressing bypass graft shortages and improving patient outcomes

This proposal aims to address the shortage of bypass grafts and alleviate the need for autologous vein harvesting by developing tissue engineered vascular grafts. The investigators have recently published a breakthrough in the fabrication of tissue engineered blood vessels. Specifically, they have developed a rapid and industrially scalable method to produce tissue engineered blood vessels that replicate the mechanical properties and the orthogonal endothelial cell and smooth muscle cell alignment found in native blood vessels.

This project aims to capitalise on this recent breakthrough and progress the technology towards clinical impact. Specifically, it will focus on creating patient-specific grafts using cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells and manufacturing the grafts from GMP-grade materials, enabling translation. Additionally, we propose to show the performance of the grafts in an in vivo model.