Cardiff and Vale University Health Board surgeon wins award for cardiothoracic research
Trainee cardiothoracic surgeon, Christopher Roche has recently won the Ronald Edwards Medal for Best Scientific Oral Presentation for his work on 3D bioprinted hydrogel patches containing cardiac spheroids, used to recover heart function post myocardial infarction (heart attack).
To undertake this research, Christopher paused his cardiothoracic surgery training in Cardiff to join the University of Sydney in 2019, where he studied for three years.
“There are many scientists around the world who generate patches to protect the heart. If you are experiencing heart failure, the most common treatment for this is a heart transplant which has many challenges in itself. It’s a massive surgery, whereby a donor heart must present itself and not to mention the life-long immunosuppressant drugs which must be taken to prevent organ rejection. So, it’s not the ideal treatment.”
Advances in regenerative medicine and research like Christopher’s is paving the way for less invasive alternatives for patients with heart disease.
The heart patches can be made up of various materials, such as different types of stem cells, biomaterials or gels. Christopher’s research stands out from the rest, as he and the team focused on using patches containing spheroids. Spheroids are a cluster of cells, cultured into small balls. Each ball would contain approximately 10,000 cells, which would then be suspended into gel to create the heart patch. This is where 3D bioprinting came to the fore.
“Once the heart patches were developed, they were used in a mouse study. From the research, we came across many findings.”
“The biggest discovery was that the heart patches seemed to alter the host heart tissue. Not only in terms of an immune response, but a genetic response too. Our patches containing the spheroids created an unprecedented response to the gene expression of the heart cells beneath.”
“Something that we uncovered that isn’t obvious in previous studies is the little understanding behind the mechanism of heart patches, as all patches seemed to improve the heart to some degree. The emphasis was on the immune response of the heart cells once a foreign material was introduced to the surface of the heart helping the heart to remodel, but for what reason we are yet to find out. This research brought this discovery to the surface.”
Now firmly back on Welsh soil to continue his cardiothoracic surgery training, Christopher hopes his learnings can influence future research at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
“I’m back at Cardiff and Vale now with a new set of skills, which will hopefully enable me to collaborate with other scientists on further research in the future in Wales. I am proud to be a Welsh trainee collecting the award for my research next year, and one of the most junior winners at ST2 level.”
Christopher will receive his award at the annual Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery meeting in March 2024 at ICC Wales.
Christopher is no stranger to innovation in cardiothoracic, as he was previously been recognised for his development of surgical instrument prototypes for minimally invasive robotic surgery to transplant patches to the heart. The ‘HeartStamp’ won the 2022 Cutler’s Surgical Prize, awarded by the Royal College of Surgeons to teams or individuals to highlight their contribution to innovation and surgical technical advances.