In the first years after the establishment of the Genetic Cardiomyopathy PLN Foundation in 2012, the focus was on gaining insight into the disease and acquiring knowledge. Particularly, medical scientific research in the Netherlands was initiated and financially supported. Subsequently, a worldwide survey was conducted to identify existing knowledge and ongoing research on the PLN mutation. To consolidate all the knowledge and research, the PLN Foundation initiated the Transatlantic Collaboration Project on January 1, 2017.
This collaboration brought together three academic medical centers in the Netherlands (Amsterdam UMC, UMC Groningen, and UMC Utrecht) with three academic medical centers in the United States (Mount Sinai Hospital New York, Stanford University School of Medicine, and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine), thus uniting the forefront of expertise and experience on the PLN mutation and the most technologically innovative institutes.
Our Transatlantic Project is dynamic. The project is led by the Netherlands Heart Institute, a unique collaboration platform of the Cardiology departments of all academic medical centers in the Netherlands. Within this institute, leadership is under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Doevendans.
Due to the initiation of the CURE-PLaN project on January 1, 2019, some duplications arose. Together with the Netherlands Heart Institute, these duplications were removed from the project. Now, the initiatives and support of the Foundation are primarily focused on strengthening the CURE-PLaN project.