U of T Engineering team creates bioartificial left ventricle - that beats.

Reaserchers at the University of Toronto have managed to use living heart cells to grow a model of a human left heart ventricle that beats strongly enough to pump fluid.

It seems that cells like to grow in 3 dimensions instead of in a flat Petrie dish. The team designed scaffolds to grow the heart cells from biocompatible polymers.

“With these models, we can study not only cell function, but tissue function and organ function, all without the need for invasive surgery or animal experimentation. We can also use them to screen large libraries of drug candidate molecules for positive or negative effects.”