Researchers at Qatar University, in collaboration with Imperial College London, Biostage, Inc. in the U.S., and the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, have made progress developing living heart valves that can grow with the body and integrate with the patient’s native tissue ( Scientific Reports , “Fabrication and in vitro characterization of a tissue engineered PCL-PLLA heart valve” ).

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The team generated the heart valves using a combination of nanotechnology, 3D printing and tissue engineering, which involves recently developed techniques to grow living cells into functional tissues or organs. Tissue engineering has already been used to successfully develop human skin and bladders.

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“Biologically engineered organs and tissues are in high demand, especially due to an enormous shortage of organ donors,” says Anwarul Hasan, an engineer and principal investigator at Qatar University. The need for heart valves is particularly high: heart valve diseases are one of […]

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