Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. In fact, it results in one in every four deaths for men and one in three for women, claiming more than 610,000 lives every year.
This high number is caused by long waits for transplants due to a lack of donor organs, not to mention the issue of organ rejection. Because of this, only 5,000 transplants occur worldwide every year.
However, BioLife4D is a biotech company which is focused on saving lives by 3D bioprinting human hearts to transplant. The company is doing this by harnessing the latest advances in tissue engineering and technology.
In May, the company opened a new research facility at JLABS in Houston, Texas to work on this issue. Impressively, within just a few days of opening the facility, the researchers made a breakthrough and announced they had demonstrated the ability to 3D bioprint human cardiac tissue.
They completed this process a lot faster than many scientific literature reports predict bioprinting human cardiac tissue should take. In fact, the current prediction is that such a feat should take between 6-8 months, certainly not just a few days.
Dr. Ravi Birla, the Company’s Chief Science Officer led the research and said: “We are extremely excited to have achieved this milestone and to successfully demonstrate our ability to 3D print human cardiac tissue. When we began this process, we knew this would be a key step in validating our technology and scientific approach, so we are pleased to be able to have accomplished this so quickly.”
https://youtu.be/w3ZBfmvkGXk
Have a Little 3D Bioprinted Heart
The patches contain multiple cell types which make up the human heart. They can be used to restore lost myocardial contractility for patients with acute heart failure.
However, BioLife4D won’t stop there and is now working on 3D bioprinting valves, blood vessels, and a mini-heart. Finally, they hope to print full-sized human hearts which could be used for transplants.
What makes the process interesting is the fact that they use a patient’s own cells to develop a functional human heart. This means the wait list for a donor organ is no longer an issue and eliminates the risk of the heart being rejected.
“This is a tremendous time for BIOLIFE4D and we could not be prouder to have accomplished this scientific landmark in such a short period of time,” said Steven Morris, CEO, BIOLIFE4D. “From the beginning, our mission has been to utilize our technology to save lives. Today, we believe we are one step closer to ultimately achieving that goal.”
Visit the BioLife4D website if you’d like to find out more. There are also other companies like Oganovo doing interesting research in this field.
Source: Press Release
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