MaVen Workstreams

Cardiac Microtissues

Can we establish scalable, economic methods for manufacturing stem-cell derived cardiac tissues for non-invasive delivery to injured myocardium?

Enhanced Cardiomyocytes

Can we exploit recent advances in synthetic biology and gene-editing to engineer stem-cell derived cardiomyocytes that will survive better post-transplantation?

Bioprinted Ventricular Pump

Can we ultimately advance from delivery of cardiac cells to replacement of the failing organ itself?

MaVen Network

MaVen’s network spans across 10 collaborating institutions, including University Health Network (UHN), University of Toronto (U of T), SickKids, McGill, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Purdue University, and University of Exeter.

We are grateful for the support of our network and our home institution – the University Health Network (UHN) McEwen Stem Cell Institute.

New Frontiers in Research Fund

Transformation Stream

The New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) supports world-leading interdisciplinary, international, high-risk / high-reward, transformative and rapid-response Canadian-led research.The Transformation stream (NFRF-T) provides large-scale support for Canada to build strength and leadership in interdisciplinary and transformative research.

Project MaVen is made possible through a 2022 NFRF-T award valued at approximately $24M CAD. MaVen was imagined and proposed to the NFRF program via an effort led by Michael Laflamme with the close collaboration of Sara Vasconcelos, Gordon Keller, Terry Yau and Jonathan Kimmelman (see Team).