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Researchers Create Beating Heart In Lab

Posted by kdawson on from the keeps-on-ticking dept.

Sunday Scientist writes "Minnesota researchers have created a beating heart in the laboratory. In a process called whole organ decellularization, they grew functioning heart tissue by using dead rat and pig hearts as a sort of flesh matrix, and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells. The goal is to grow replacement parts, using their own stem cells, for people born with defective tickers or experiencing heart failure."

6 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Wizard of Oz by hack++slash · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tin Man will be so pleased.

    --
    To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
  2. choices, choices... by smokejive · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now the big question is, do I go for the replacement legs that give me more speed and let me jump higher, or do I become more stealthy. Choices, choices...

  3. Install several in parallel by MonkeyBoyo · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you can grow replacement hears, then you can grow more than one.

    Think of the gains of installing 2 in parallel, or even 4.

    Though it would probably be nice to get their beating synchronized.

    1. Re:Install several in parallel by qw0ntum · · Score: 5, Funny

      Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those things! ...sorry.

      --
      'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
  4. Cool, but... by owlnation · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...it's pronounced "Fronkensteen".

  5. Re:Interesting engineering opportunities by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nearly every sport has a doping and non-doping league already. The problem is, people will only pay to see the non-doping leagues at the moment. Which means all the money is in the non-doping league. Which means all the dopers try to cheat and compete in the non-doping league. This problem seems unlikely to ever go away. It seemed to me it was the other way around. But then I don't really follow the sports.
    --

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    Made from the freshest electrons.