IMBA Senior Scientist Sasha Mendjan was awarded the second place of the Houska Prize 2026 in the “university research” category. Austria’s leading private research prize presented annually by the B&C Private Foundation, recognized Mendjan’s research on cardioids, a stem cell–based organoid model system that opens new avenues for studying human heart development and disease.

The Houska Award recognizes outstanding, application-oriented research with strong societal and economic relevance. Mendjan’s work exemplifies this mission by bridging fundamental biology with translational potential in cardiovascular medicine.

Building human heart models in the lab

In his award-winning project, Mendjan and his team developed “cardioids”—self-organizing, three-dimensional structures derived from human stem cells that mimic key aspects of early human heart formation. Unlike previous models, cardioids recapitulate the spatial organization, tissue complexity, and emerging chamber-like structures of the developing heart, enabling researchers to investigate processes such as tissue patterning, morphogenesis, and disease mechanisms with unprecedented precision.

These advances provide powerful tools for understanding congenital heart defects, testing therapeutic strategies, and refining regenerative medicine approaches. By combining cutting-edge stem cell biology with bioengineering principles, the project highlights how fundamental discoveries can lead to tangible biomedical applications.

“With cardioids, we can observe how the human heart begins to form in a controlled laboratory setting. This opens up entirely new possibilities to study developmental processes and disease mechanisms that were previously inaccessible,” says Sasha Mendjan. “I am deeply honored to receive the Houska Award and grateful to my team and collaborators who made this work possible.”

IMBA Director Elly Tanaka, who attended the award gala in Vienna on 21 April, emphasized the broader significance of the achievement. Mendjan’s work also exemplifies a full translational trajectory, from fundamental discoveries in stem cell biology to the founding of the spin-out company heartbeat.bio: “This award highlights IMBA’s unique position at the interface of fundamental discovery and translational research. As a basic research institute, we are deeply committed to understanding the principles of life, while at the same time exploring how these insights can be translated into real-world applications. IMBA stands at a crucial crossroads between research, education, and innovation, and Sasha Mendjan’s work is an outstanding example of how bridging these domains can lead to transformative advances.”

About Sasha Mendjan

Sasha Mendjan obtained a PhD at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, in Munich, Germany, after which he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. In 2015, Mendjan joined IMBA as a Junior Group Leader. In March of 2024, Mendjan became an Assistant Professor at the Medical University of Vienna with a joint IMBA affiliation. In 2025, he was promoted to Senior Group Leader at IMBA and was awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his research on heart development. Mendjan is a Co-Founder of heartbeat.bio, a Vienna BioCenter spin-off company aimed at developing a cardioid drug discovery platform.

About the B&C Private Foundation

The B&C Private Foundation is an independent Austrian foundation that, since its establishment in December 2000, has pursued the goal of promoting Austrian entrepreneurship. This is achieved primarily through long-term majority stakes, held through the B&C Group, in the Austrian industrial companies AMAG Austria Metall AG, Lenzing AG, and Semperit AG Holding, and through investments in technology growth companies . The B&C Private Foundation promotes Austria as a business location through numerous projects and initiatives that actively contribute to improving the economic and legal framework in Austria. www.bcprivatstiftung.at ,  www.houskapreis.at