• Question: In the future is there likely to be such thing as a electronic heart? Are scientists working on this?

    Asked by Jess to Barbara, Matt, Ravinder, Sophie, Tristan on 13 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Sophie Robinson

      Sophie Robinson answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Yes this is something which has just been developed! It is the size of a grapefruit and cost £15 million to make. The heart is predicted to be ready to be transplanted at the end of the year. It should prevent hundreds of deaths every year due to a lack of donors.

      It should also be better than a normal heart transplant as it means patients will not need to take drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent their immune system from rejecting it.

    • Photo: Matthew Moore

      Matthew Moore answered on 15 Mar 2015:

      The heart Sophie mentioned is really cool and she’s right, patients rejecting transplants is a huge problem indeed! Following transplants people must continually take immunosuppressants, which make them more susceptible to illness through infection.

    • Photo: Barbara Shih

      Barbara Shih answered on 15 Mar 2015:

      Sophie and Matt answered everything really. I just wanted to add something in case there was any confusion. I think the £15 million is for developing the technology (i.e. employing the scientists and cost of doing the experiments). The cost of an artificial heart seems to be around $100,000 (around £70,000; 3 to 4 times the average amount someone in the UK get paid per year). Still a lot but probably more possible to use more widely.

      Here is an article about the different models of artificial heart
      http://openwetware.org/wiki/Artificial_Hearts,_by_Manuel_Escanciano_and_Charles_Beyrouthy

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