New ‘heart’ raises hope of major medical advances

In a pioneering development in the field of cardiovascular research, a ‘Heart in a Dish’ model with cardiovascular disease has been created in a research laboratory this Valentine’s.
Dr. Prashant Ruchaya, senior lecturer in physiology in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience, has successfully used stem cells grown in a dish to create a miniature aged human heart model.
Through the use of predictive AI as a diagnostic tool, this model will help understand the intricacies of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and their relationship with the aging process and regeneration. The beating stem cell hearts are being used as models to understand mechanisms of disease, and then target mechanisms for treating diseases.