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Agnes Csiszar receives 1000-Idea Grant from FWF for the research of endogenous mechanisms of how the cytokine ILEI protects heart muscle cells from dying after a heart attack

Heart attacks are a leading cause of death worldwide and curative therapies are unresolved. FAM3C/ILEI has been identified as a strong protective factor for the heart after heart attack, which raises the question if it can be harnessed for therapy. The funded research of Agnes Csiszar explores the novel idea that an endogenous ILEI protein pool could serve as an emergency reservoir of the ILEI protein to protect the heart after a heart attack.

Csiszar’s team in cooperation with researchers around Attila Kiss at the Cardiovascular Institute of the Center of Biomedical Research and Translational Surgery will utilize genetically modified mice with tissue specific ILEI deletion combined with murine models of heart attack extended with in vitro models and human patient material to test the hypothesis of a body-own heart protection and set the path to the development of new therapeutic strategies that boost this natural defense mechanism.

The research will also foster the understanding on the pathophysiological function of endogenous ILEI protein pools and their relation to heart attacks.

Agnes Csiszar is a researcher at the Center for Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna. The focus of her scientific work is the elucidation of molecular mechanisms of the cytokine ILEI/FAM3C in (pre)-carcinogenic processes, such as chronic inflammation, tumor metastasis and therapy resistance. Recently, she has expanded her interest to cardio-oncology research, striving to understand the systemic impact of advanced cancer stages and cancer therapies on cardiac dysfunction.

 

1000 Ideas funding program

The aim of the FWF program is to encourage risk-taking and creativity and to facilitate the development of new, innovative areas of research. The focus is on original, high-risk or transformative research at an early stage, which may be too early to have a very good chance of being funded through existing funding programs due to the unconventional design, lack of validation data and/or the high risks involved. The funding offer is aimed at researchers from all disciplines. In 2024, 19 projects were funded, 10 of which were from the medical/biological field. One of these projects was awarded to the MUW, to the researcher Agnes Csiszar.