Image courtesy of Tranquillo Group, University of Minnesota.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities recently received a $3.7 million grant to prepare for a human clinical trial of artificial, bioengineered blood vessels.
The new funding is through the U.S. Dept. of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. It will go toward the preparation needed for a human clinical trial of artificial, bioengineered blood vessels that grow with a patient. If the trial is successful, the vessel grafts could be used to prevent repeated surgeries in children with congenital heart defects.
Patients who have heart defects at birth can often grow out of current vessel grafts and need to have larger vessels implanted several times while still growing, according to the researchers.
“This grant is a major step forward and will allow us to do everything that’s necessary …