A heart attack in a petri dish

(New Jersey Institute of Technology) In her laboratory at NJIT, biomedical engineer Alice Lee develops tiny proto-hearts from stem cells that she subjects to 'attacks' to observe in real-time how the heart repairs itself. With National Science Foundation funding, she aims to advance cell-based therapies, unsuccessful as yet in part due to limited knowledge of the biological mechanisms of the transplanted stem cells. To date, researchers have focused on mimicking healthy hearts with the goal of providing living surgical replacements.
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news