Mini Heart, Pretty Big Deal

A team of researchers led by Boston University created a miniature heart replica that behaves like a living organ and can be used to test experimental treatments, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in Science Advances.

🫀 Why it’s a big deal: Heart disease has been the leading cause of death globally for the past 20 years. In America, a person dies of heart disease every 36 seconds, according to CDC figures.

• So as you can imagine, scientists are very interested in studying the human heart as it goes about its job. The problem? There hasn’t been a safe and consistent way to do so... until now.

⚙️ How it works... The researchers used nanoengineered parts and human tissue to create a 3-square-centimeter replica of a heart ventricle, called a miniPUMP, that beats on its own without any springs or external power sources.

• The miniPUMP can be used to track how the heart grows in embryo, examine how its tissue is affected by certain diseases, and try out new treatments – all without needing a living organ.

💬 What they’re saying: “We chose to work on heart tissue because of its particularly complicated mechanics, but we showed that, when you take nanotechnology and marry it with tissue engineering, there’s potential for replicating this for multiple organs,” according to Alice White, a Boston University chair of mechanical engineering.