Researchers have found a way to use fiber-infused ink to 3D-print a functional heart ventricle that mimics the beating of a human heart.
The team included researchers from Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. They reported on their new hydrogel ink infused with gelatin fibers in a paper published in Nature Materials.
This fiber-infused gel (FIG) ink allows heart muscle cells printed in the shape of a ventricle to align, beating in coordination like a human heart chamber.
“People have been trying to replicate organ structures and functions to test drug safety and efficacy as a way of predicting what might happen in the clinical setting,” said Suji Choi, research associate at SEAS and first author on the pape…