Frankenstein, baby's heartbeat solve medical challenge

It's an electrifying step forward for cardiac research: a new method of maturing human heart cells that simulates their natural growth environment while applying electrical pulses to mimic a fetal heart rate. The discovery, which offers cardiac researchers a fast and reliable way to create mature human cardiac patches in a range of sizes, was announced by University of Toronto researchers in the scientific. "You cannot obtain human cardiomyocytes (heart cells) from human patients," explained Milica Radisic, Canada Research Chair in Functional Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering and Associate Professor with the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry. Because human heart cells—integral for studying the efficacy of cardiac drugs, for instance—do not naturally proliferate in large numbers, researchers have been using heart cells derived from reprogrammed human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC's), which tend to be too immature to use effectively in research or transplantation. "The question is: if you want to test drugs or treat adult patients, do you want to use cells that look like and function like fetal cardiomyocytes?" asked Radisic, who was named a "Top Innovator Under 35" by MIT Technology Review and more recently was awarded the Order of Ontario and the Young Engineers of Canada 2012 Achievement Award.