Engineering Heart Tissue by Manipulating the Physical and Cellular Culture Environment in Bioreactors

The aim of this project is to develop new technology for producing heart muscle using cell culture systems. As cardiac disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, the availability of engineered heart tissue suitable for transplantation will make a substantial contribution to human health. Several new approaches will be investigated. These include the use of fat-derived adult stem cells, the application of novel bioreactors and cell scaffolds to provide important biomechanical cues for heart cell differentiation, and the use of regenerating zebrafish heart tissue as a benchmark for the development of new mammalian cell culture systems. This work has the potential to significantly improve our ability to treat heart disease.