X-Message-Number: 13764
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 23:02:06 -0700
From: Richard Gillmann <>
Subject: UW bioengineers get money to grow heart parts

Seattle bioengineers get money to grow heart-cell patch kits 

Monday, May 22, 2000

By TOM PAULSON 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER 

Scientists in Seattle have been awarded $10 million by the National
Institutes of Health to build a living heart. 

It won't be an artificial heart, one of those contraptions made of metal,
plastic or some other inert material. This heart will be made from a
patient's own cells, developed into living tissue in the lab and
transplanted back into the body. 

"Starting at the cellular level, what we want to do is create an
environment in which heart muscle can evolve," said Dr. Buddy Ratner,
director of the University of Washington's Engineered Biomaterials Center
and lead investigator for the NIH "engineered cardiac morphogenesis" project.

The first step of the project will be to grow a chunk of heart muscle -- a
"patch" -- that can be used to surgically replace a section of dead or
damaged heart tissue. The second stage aims to build a tubular-replacement
"left ventricle" that can take over the pumping action in a case of heart
failure.

Complete story at http://www.seattle-pi.com/local/hart22.shtml

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Richard Gillmann                    http://www.nwlink.com/~rxg
Issaquah, WA (USA)                       
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