Pioneering a Restorative Approach

Heart valve disease is a serious condition.
In industrialized countries, it affects around 2% of the population and many patients remain undiagnosed.

In these countries, hundreds of thousands of patients undertake heart valve intervention every year. This figure is expected to rise substantially due to aging of the population and better diagnosis of pre-existing heart valve disease.

Biological and mechanical heart valves can be life savers. However, all existing options involve some compromise. Patients with biological valves may endure repeated replacement procedures.

Mechanical valves require long-term medication, with potentially severe side effects.

Xeltis is pioneering a restorative approach in heart valve therapy to overcome the limitations of existing options.

Xeltis’ heart valves enable the patient’s own body to naturally restore a new heart valve through a therapeutic approach called Endogenous Tissue Restoration (ETR).

Xeltis’ History

Xeltis’ history is the culmination of substantial developments in regenerative medicine, supramolecular chemistry and electrospinning.

Regenerative Medicine

  • First tissue transplantation experiments

  • First cultivation of cells outside of the body and organ ‘culture’ by Alexis Carrel – Nobel Prize laureate for his transplantation work

  • First bioreactor created by unique engineering medicine cooperation: Carell and world-famous pilot Charles A. Lindbergh

  • Fundamental in vitro tissue growth work with first dermal cell culture on a scaffold from Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston MIT collaboration

  • Tissue engineering: mouse with subcutaneous artificial scaffold works as bioreactor for cell in-growth. Harvard at the center of the heart-valve tissue-engineering.

  • Cardiovascular tissue engineering takes off with University of Zurich (UZH) collaborating with Frank Baaijens’ team at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).

  • Xeltis and QTIS founded respectively as spin-offs of UZH and TU/e to develop tissue-engineered heart valves.

19TH CENTURY20TH CENTURY1930s1960s – 80s:1990sNEW MILLENNIUM2006 and 2007

Supramolecular Chemistry

  • Supramolecular chemistry postulates.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  • Fundamental science of supramolecular chemistry established with 1987 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Jean-Marie Lehn, Donald J. Cram and Charles J. Pedersen for their supramolecular chemistry work.

  • New supramolecular building blocks’ development by Bert Meijer at Eindhoven University of Technology.

19TH CENTURY1960s – 80s1990s and NEW MILLENNIUM

Electrospinning

  • First electrospinning experiments.

  • Electrospinning first patented.

  • First industrial use of electrospun equipment.

  • Industrial production of electrospun filters.

  • Growth of scientific research on electrospinning.

  • Research develops on usage of electrospinning in medical applications.

  • Research on tissue regeneration, supramolecular polymers and electrospinning join with Frank Baaijens’ group starting research on ‘in situ tissue engineering’, now called ETR.

  • Xeltis and QTIS merge, abandon tissue engineering to focus on ETR and to develop the RestoreX technology platform.

  • First patients implanted with Xeltis bioabsorbable blood vessels (pulmonary conduit) and patches.

  • First patient implanted with Xeltis bioabsorbable pulmonary heart valve in clinical trials, with Thierry Carrel as Principal Investigator.

  • Xplore-2 trial in US

    Xeltis Series C financing round closed

  • Small diameter blood vessels enter preclinical trial phase
    Patient enrolment completed for EFS

Xeltis is carrying the legacy of hundreds of years of research made by incredible visionaries and scientists.

Most of the (contemporary) people named are today involved with the company.