Approximately 200 heart transplants take place in the UK every year, while 20 patients die while waiting for a suitable organ. Fortunately, a team of researchers from the UK and the Netherlands may soon develop a robotic heart that can pump blood but is soft and pliable.
Researcher Jolanda Kluin was inspired upon seeing a picture of the soft and flexible but tough arms of a robotic starfish. Called a hybrid heart, the device has a layer of synthetic muscle that is strong and flexible enough to contract and expand like real heart muscle, a lining to capture cells that will gradually build a tissue cover, and an outer net-like scaffolding covered by the patient’s own tissue to reduce the chances of rejection.
The first working model is expected to be ready for human implantation by 2028.