QUT On Board with Artificial Heart Frontiers Program

Image credit: QUT/Artificial Heart Frontiers Program (used with permission)

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has joined the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program (AHFP), a game-changing transdisciplinary group established to develop and commercialise critical implantable devices for the treatment of heart failure.

Within the suite of innovations under development by the AHFT consortium includes the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart, a Left Ventricular Assist Device and the minimally invasive MiniPump.

The latter will be developed and commercialised by QUT for use in patients without other mechanical circulatory technology options, and limited only to pharmaceutical therapies and end-of-life support.

“Central to the Frontiers Program is the creation of a complete cardiac device ecosystem in Australia encompassing research, clinical trials, commercialisation and the development of new manufacturing capabilities,” said Director of the QUT Centre for Biomedical Technologies and Co-Director of the AHFP, Professor Shaun Gregory in a statement.

“The MiniPump will help patients who have a specific type of heart failure that at the moment is completely unaddressed, so it’s a big priority for our team.”

The project has received $8.3 million from the Medical Research Future Fund, as part of a total $50 million grant to the ARHT program.

For more information, check out this statement from QUT or refer to the AHFP website.