Dr Philippe Menasché is a cardiac surgeon at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital, Professor of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Paris-Cité University, and is in charge of an INSERM team dedicated to cell therapy for heart failure. After the world’s first muscle stem cell transplant in this indication (2000), work has refocused on the production of cardiac cells derived from human embryonic stem cells and embedded in a surgically implanted biomaterial. The first trial (2014) to study the effects of this cellularised patch was successfully completed. In parallel, the team is working on the exclusive use of biologisa factors secreted by the cells that can reproduce their functional and structural benefits, with the main aim of streamlining the translation to the clinic.