Mass General Brigham researchers developing new way to stimulate heart tissue with light-activated ink
A team of researchers at Mass General Brigham, a New England Council member, is developing a way to stimulate heart tissue through light-activated ink with the intent that it could be used to repair the heart, once fully developed.
Led by Harvard medical professor and bioengineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Y. Shrike Zhang, the research team is working on incorporating optoelectronically active ink with bioprinted tissue. When hit with a light source, the micro-solar cells ingrained in the ink would turn the light into electric signals and stimulate the tissue. This option would allow medical professionals to shine a light through a patient’s body to stimulate the heart and create a non-invasive approach to treating patients after a cardiac event.
The team has focused thus far on Petri dish tests and small-scale work on mice and rats. The next step will move to larger animals like pigs and then onto human trials. “Now that we have established the proof-of-concept for this technology, we are shifting our efforts towards understanding how it might promote long-term tissue regeneration and integrating it seamlessly within the heart’s biology,” said Zhang.
The New England Council congratulates the team at Mass General Brigham on this exciting new research.
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