Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States killing more than 600,000 people a year. But there may be a new development insight that could change all that.

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Researchers at the University of Minnesota have 3D printed a working human heart pump in the lab that is made out of human cells. This isn’t the first time researchers have tried to 3D print cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells. These specialized cells are derived from pluripotent human stem cells, cells with the potential to develop into any type of cell in the body. However, before this study, scientists could never reach enough cell density for the heart muscle cells to actually work. “At first, we tried 3D printing cardiomyocytes, and we failed, too,” said in a statement Brenda Ogle, the lead researcher on the study and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University […]

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