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Karl Heinrich Schneider wins Best Abstract Award at LBG Meeting for Health Sciences 2016

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Bild: LBG/Johannes Brunnbauer
(from left): Wolfgang Neurath (Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy), Dejan Baltic (Merck), Karl Heinrich Schneider, Emilie Brandl (Ludwig Boltzmann Society), Stuart Freeman (Presenter, FM4 Morning Show)

(Vienna, 13 November 2016) Karl Heinrich Schneider from MedUni Vienna's Division of Biomedical Research received the Best Abstract Award at the LBG Meeting for Health Sciences 2016, held in Vienna.

The Best Abstract Award was given in recognition of the four best abstracts submitted for the LBG Meeting for Health Sciences. A total of 150 abstracts were submitted. Karl Schneider was awarded the prize, which is sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Merck, in the "Cardiovascular Research" category for his study entitled "Inflammatory response of decellularized small diameter vascular grafts from placenta; in-vitro and in-vivo studies".

This is a study into the manufacture and characterisation of small-diameter vascular grafts from human placenta. The human placenta has a pronounced vascular system that can be used as a source of donor vessels. The vascular grafts produced in this way were investigated in the context of in-vitro studies and a preclinical pilot study. They were also tested in terms of their biomechanics, biocompatibility and the severity of any potential immune response. The results obtained so far underscore the potential of human placental tissue as an alternative material for replacing small-diameter vessels. In future, it is planned to carry out long-term studies to obtain a more precise characterisation of the material and to investigate its  molecular composition. It is expected that, even in the future, the use of natural tissue as biomaterial will continue to play an important role in regenerative medicine.

About Karl Heinrich Schneider
Karl Heinrich Schneider studied food and biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), where he wrote his master's thesis at the Institute for Applied Microbiology (IAM) on the influence of microRNAs on cell calcification, such as occurs in arteriosclerotic diseases. He completed his PhD at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology (title of his dissertation: "Development of standard scaffolds for the rational design of bioactive materials for tissue regeneration"), in collaboration with BOKU. In March 2016, Karl Schneider took up an appointment as postdoctoral researcher at MedUni Vienna's Department of Biomedical Research, where he continues to focus on the development of prosthetic cardiovascular implants.