UMCG and NVision Quantum Technologies have secured a FORESIGHT program subsidy for their joint public-private partnership (PPP) project, IMPACT-HF.
The FORESIGHT program was launched to accelerate drug development through the strategic use of molecular imaging. By providing annual funding opportunities to applicants across the Netherlands, the program fosters high-impact collaborations with industry partners designed to strengthen the Dutch economy.
At UMCG, Dr. Daan Westenbrink’s team at the Department of Cardiology is building on NVision’s innovative quantum-polarization platform to pioneer a new era in heart failure research. Their joint effort achieves a previously impossible feat: watching the heart burn fuel in real time. This metabolic insight was once beyond the reach of standard medical scans and marks a major step forward in how we understand and treat heart disease.
In the Netherlands, 240,000 people live with heart failure. It causes 34,000 hospital admissions each year and takes up about 1% of total healthcare spending. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is particularly devastating: While the heart often appears normal on standard scans, patients struggle to breathe, feel exhausted, and face survival rates worse than most cancers. The problem is metabolic. The heart takes up glucose but burns it incompletely, like an engine that misfires. This limits energy delivery, and without enough fuel, the heart cannot pump effectively. Doctors have no way to measure this energy crisis and are flying blind when choosing the best treatments for their patients.
NVision’s Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 MRI platform, POLARIS, provides the long-awaited breakthrough. The system uses quantum technology to boost the MRI signal of sugar-based imaging agents by orders of magnitude, enabling real-time measurement of metabolism on standard MRI systems. For the first time, we can visualize metabolic 'misfires' as they happen, turning the lights on for doctors and providing a clear map for treatment decisions.. As a result, researchers can measure cardiac metabolism quickly, accurately, and at clinical scale. By injecting a specially prepared, non-radioactive tracer (pyruvate, similar to glucose) doctors can watch how the heart processes fuel in real time. Complete fuel burning produces bicarbonate and energy. Incomplete burning diverts fuel into lactate, wasting energy. Within seconds, the scan reveals whether and how severely the heart is energy-starved. This “imaging of the cardiac diet” identifies the metabolic crisis, shows which treatments work best, and tracks progress during therapy. It transforms an invisible problem into something visible and measurable.
This 4-year project tests the technology and creates standards that doctors and scientists can trust and use. The partners will build imaging protocols that work, identify which patients need which treatments, and show that the scan captures treatment effects. These results position the Netherlands to lead the global shift toward precision metabolic medicine in HFpEF, enabling tailored therapies that restore the heart’s fuel-burning capacity and improve patients’ lives.
The FORESIGHT PPP program is made possible via the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) subsidy scheme introduced by the Top Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation - Life Sciences & Health (TKI-LSH aka Health~Holland). Through the program, led by the steering institutions of UMCG, AUMC, NKI/AVL and TU/e, parties have the opportunity to apply for PPP projects with the PPP subsidy from Health~Holland.
An amount of 9 Million Euros PPP subsidy was awarded to the Program to distribute among and support collaborative projects by issuing yearly Calls for projects to run between 2025 and 2032.
For additional information, visit the page: The FORESIGHT PPP Program
For questions, please reach [email protected]
