UCC-UNRAVEL

Aims

Patients with a heart disease, as well as their relatives who are screened for heart disease, are eligible for inclusion in this biobank. Materials (i.e. blood and cardiac tissue samples and DNA), genetic information, and clinical data (e.g. electrocardiographic, imaging, and outcome) are obtained from patients who explicitly consent to participation in this biobank. As an add-on protocol, we provide a protocol for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells. In doing so, UNRAVEL creates a sustainable resource of biomaterials in combination with clinical information, that is available for future scientific research.

Since 2021, the UNRAVEL platform also includes the above-mentioned information for affected animals treated at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Utrecht University, which allows translation of findings from basic science to clinics and back. Furthermore, we educate patients, students/residents, general practitioners, and colleagues from referral sites to share our knowledge to improve patient care.

As such, UNRAVEL is an unprecedented resource for clinical and translational research, and resulted in our researchers being involved in the development of various (inter)national guidelines.

UNRAVEL is embedded in the European Reference Network GUARD-Heart and in the UMCU Center of Expertise for hereditary cardiovascular diseases, as granted by the Dutch Federation of Universities.