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Professor Markaki receives Translational Award from BHF

February 3, 2025
Professor Athina Markaki

The BHF Translational Award will fund a project seeking to replace synthetic haemodialysis grafts, used to connect an artery and a vein to facilitate kidney dialysis, with a patented biological graft and demonstrate lower risks of infection, thrombosis, and other complications, thereby leading to reductions in surgical interventions and reduced demand for hospital access.

The 3-year project has received £741K in funding and is led by Robinson Fellow, Professor Athina Markaki at the Department of Engineering.

Professor Markaki

Professor Markaki says: “The current standard of care involves synthetic non-degradable grafts which suffer from high levels of complications and lack a regenerative ability. Our aim is to lessen the impact of dialysis on patients’ lives with our next generation, off-the-shelf biological grafts. We are grateful to Cambridge Enterprise, CATS, the School of Technology and the Department of Engineering for their support over the past few years which enabled us to obtain proof of concept data necessary for the procurement of external translational funding from BHF”.

Dr Justin adds: “The internal support was instrumental in advancing the project to a stage competitive for an external translational award. Additionally, the Impulse Programme and the Chris Abell Postdoc Business Plan Competition were key in developing a strong case for commercialisation.”

BHF Translational awards support the development of technologies with transformative potential to human cardiovascular health from the proof-of-concept stage to being ready for the commercial market. Proposals are expected to demonstrate a strong intellectual property position and a development proposition that could attract follow-on investment.

Read the full announcement from the Department of Engineering