With HeartGate, Dr Florian Meißner and Manuela Schön are developing a surgical implantation kit for heart pumps, which in future will enable the procedure to be carried out without heart-lung machine. Photo: Klaus Polkowski
Part-time students at Furtwangen University develop implantation kit for heart pumps
For those with severe heart failure, a mechanical heart pump is often the last resort. However, the implantation of such pumps has so far been highly invasive, requiring the use of a heart-lung machine. With HeartGate, Dr Florian Meißner and Manuela Schön are developing a surgical implantation kit designed to enable this procedure to be carried out without a heart-lung machine in future. The pair, who work at the Department of Cardiac and Vascular Surgery at the University Medical Centre Freiburg, are studying part-time at HFU. Florian Meißner is completing the MBA programme in ‘Internal link opens in the same window:Medical Devices and Healthcare Management’, whilst Manuela Schön is studying for a master’s in ‘Internal link opens in the same window:Medical Devices – Regulatory Affairs’.
HeartGate’s aim is to make the implantation of heart pumps faster, safer and more accessible, even for patients with an increased surgical risk. Developing a medical device requires not only medical and technical expertise but also knowledge of management, regulatory approval and financing – skills which both are specifically deepening through their HFU degree programmes.
The team received early support from the HFU start-up advisory service Internal link opens in the same window:startUPcampus and the University of Freiburg’s start-up office. A key boost came in early 2025 from the KickStart@HFU funding programme, which enabled the development and testing of new prototypes as part of pre-clinical trials. This laid an important foundation for further development, for which the team is very grateful. “The HFU startUPcampus has always believed in our idea. It has not only supported us financially, but has also made its valuable network of medical technology companies – particularly in Tuttlingen – available to us,” said Meißner.
With this network of academia and industry behind it, HeartGate has achieved numerous successes. The team won first place – and prizemoney of €25,000 – in the nationwide Science4Life business plan competition, beating 93 other start-ups. In addition, HeartGate received the audience award at Innovation Night #7 in Rottweil, co-organised by the HFU, as well as the jury prize at the BadenCampus Accelerator’s arise Demo Day.
A particular milestone was the approval from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) for funding under the GO-Bio next programme. Over the next three years, HeartGate’s development will be supported with over €4m. The funding will enable the team to expand, carry out pre-clinical validation and prepare for the clinical trial.
The team still has a long way to go before HeartGate receives final approval as a medical device. With the support of the startUPcampus, important milestones have already been achieved. Prof. Dr Martin Haimerl, Scientific Director of the Internal link opens in the same window:Tuttlingen Innovation and Research Center at Furtwangen University, sees the collaboration as a major benefit for both sides, “We are delighted to be able to support such a valuable approach in the field of cardiac surgery. It is a real pleasure to be able to witness the highly successful careers of two such dedicated and innovative individuals.”