President Nicușor Dan declared, after the meeting in Iasi with the researchers and students from UMF “Grigore Popa”, who made the smallest artificial heart in the world, intended for both adults and children, that it was “deeply impressed” of this project with “huge potential”. The head of state stated that the prototype is in an advanced stage of testing in the laboratory, with pre-clinical tests expected to begin in the next 12 months “animal model”.
Nicușor Dan was “deeply impressed” by this project with “huge potential”. PHOTO: Facebook
“The smallest fully implantable artificial heart, with application for both adults and children, is a project developed by a group of Iasi researchers and students with whom I spoke yesterday. I was impressed by this project with huge potential. The prototype is in an advanced phase of laboratory testing, and in the next 12 months preclinical tests in an animal model are planned. If these stages are successfully completed, Romania will become the first country in Eastern Europe capable of developing and validating its own fully implantable assisted mechanical circulation technology”, President Nicusor Dan wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.
The head of state believes that “the opportunity” that these projects offer represent “new solutions” for patients with advanced heart failure who are on transplant waiting lists, but also “training a new generation of biomedical engineering specialists who can deepen Romania’s integration into the European advanced research ecosystem”.
“I have conveyed my full admiration and support to the MAVIS Artificial Heart team. We really need students, researchers and mentors like them”concluded Nicuşor Dan.
In 2023, UMF “Grigore Popa” announces that the Mavis Artificial Heart team, from the higher education institution in Iasi, has obtained “Award for the most advanced artificial heart”in the grand final of the competition – “Heart Hackathon” (the first worldwide student competition for the creation of an artificial heart), which took place on October 29, in Dallas.
“Following the event, we managed to establish connections with many renowned professionals and institutions, which prove to be of crucial importance for the continued development of our prototype. We are dedicated to innovation and research to revolutionize the field of cardiovascular medicine, which has made us stand out on this journey and which has brought us a valuable sponsor, namely Caensus Gmbh, which will help us to we continue the development of our product. We would like to thank the Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer MAVIS, which supported us throughout the project, and the “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași, which provided us with all the conditions for travel and participation in the Conference of the International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support in Dallas and which gave us the opportunity to make our work known among the greatest experts worldwide”the team members then broadcast.
The rector of UMF Iaşi, university professor dr. Viorel Scripcariu, says that the MAVIS team meets the qualities that he would like all students of the University he leads to have: “intelligence, curiosity, tenacity and increased interest in research, innovation”.
“I congratulate them for this award – a result commensurate with their effort, on behalf of the entire academic community of UMF Iasi”, declared the rector of UMF Iasi two years ago.
