Frequently Asked Questions

CCVR director Doris Taylor and her research team built the first beating bioartificial heart using a tissue scaffold from a rat heart and heart cells from newborn rats.

We're testing the approach with other organs. We're also working to make the bioartificial heart better and stronger and keeping it alive longer

The goal of these studies is to create replacements for human blood vessels, hearts, and other organs using a donor human or pig scaffold and the recipient's own cells.

Researchers must refine the heart to be strong enough to actually pump blood through the body. We need to test manufactured organs in animal studies and eventually in human clinical trials. And we need to receive FDA approval.

The supply of donor hearts for transplant falls far short of the number needed: Each year, some 50,000 individuals in the United States alone die while awaiting a heart. In addition, recipients of conventional heart transplants must take immune-system-compromising medication for the rest of their lives to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organ. Because the replacement heart would be made up of the recipient's own cells and the body might replace the scaffold with its own cells, a recipient of a bioartificial heart conceivably could get by without anti-rejection medicine.

We expect that it will be at least 10 years before bioartificial hearts will be available for use on a nonexperimental basis.

Dr. Taylor's work opens the door to exploring the construction of other replacement organs such as kidney, pancreas, lung, and liver.

Medtronic Foundation and the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center.