Heartbeat.bio partners with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop a gene therapy for cardiomyopathy

23 September 2025

Vienna-based Heartbeat.bio, developer of breakthrough therapies for cardiac disorders through its proprietary human-based in vitro cardioid drug discovery platform, announces it has entered into a research collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop gene therapy-based treatments for genetic cardiomyopathies.

Genetic cardiac pathologies such as hypertrophic, dilated, arrhythmogenic right ventricular and restrictive cardiomyopathy, are typically caused by pathogenic variants that govern sarcomere structure, cytoskeleton integrity, ion handling, and other vital myocyte structural-functional features, resulting in symptoms of dyspnea, arrhythmia, palpitations, syncope and sudden cardiac arrest.

Owing to human-specific features of heart anatomy, cardiomyocyte electrophysiology, metabolism, genetics and gene expression, animal models are poorly adapted for investigating the mechanisms that underly human cardiomyopathies and developing effective therapies. Thus therapies that directly target the molecular mechanisms of cardiomyopathy remain a significant unmet need. 

To recapitulate key features of inherited heart diseases and test efficacy of therapeutic candidates, HeartBeat.bio has engineered hiPSC-derived human cardiac organoids with a single beating cavity formed by multiple cardiac lineages, termed cardioids. Heartbeat.bio automated cardioid generation to increase throughput and enhance reproducibility, enabling the consistent production of human cardiac organoids at scale. Their AI‑based analysis pipelines extract quantitative functional and morphological metrics from thousands of cardioids, providing high‑content phenotyping suitable for drug discovery.

The announced partnership will combine Boehringer Ingelheim’s expertise in gene therapy development with HeartBeat.bio’s proprietary cardioid drug discovery platform, paving the way for discovery of innovative therapies.

“Inherited heart diseases often strike early and progress silently. By modeling genetic cardiomyopathies in human cardiac organoids, we can screen and profile potential therapies with unprecedented precision and speed,” said Michael Krebs, CEO of HeartBeat.bio.“ This collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim marks an important step towards bringing new, transformative treatments to patients with inherited heart conditions.”

Leveraging its human-based, animal-free in vitro platform has made it possible for HeartBeat.bio to advance its own therapeutic pipeline while strategically partnering with pharma and biotech companies to co-develop transformative heart failure treatments.