Right Turn: Heart in a box – are we there yet?

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I’m not sure many of you are die-hard biomaterial fans like me, but there was a shot heard around the biomaterial world when Canada’s very own Professor Michael Sefton, at the University of Toronto, proposed creating a heart in a box. He made the claim nearly ten years ago. I bring this up now because a company out of Boston, MA (a known hotbed for biomaterial activity) is almost there. Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology (HART) may cash in on Professor Sefton’s prescient claim from the past.

Click here to check out the videos on HART’s site about lab-grown organs. They are really far along in terms of commercializing their stem-cell loaded biomaterial tracheal scaffolds and mentioned at the end of the video that follows is the fact hearts grown in the lab may be a mere ten years away.

Our regular feature, Right Turn, showcases the “lighter” side of stem cells and regenerative medicine. Every Friday, we will bring you cartoons, photos, videos and other content that may be just as thought provoking as the written submissions that you are used to finding here, but they definitely won’t be blogs.

As always, we welcome your feedback and we also welcome suitable submissions. Be creative! Use the right (!) side of your brain. Make us laugh! Let’s see if we can make this new direction a positive one for all of us. Send your submission to info(at)ccrm.ca.

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Roshan Yoganathan

Dr. Roshan Yoganathan is a subject matter expert in the area of biomaterials for cancer therapy and regenerative medicine applications with over 5 years of start-up experience in the area of combination products and class III medical devices. During his tenure at CCRM he was promoted from Development Scientist to Project Manager/Scientist and responsible for leading the Biomaterials and Devices platform. Roshan has also held several postdoctoral appointments such as Senior Postdoctoral researcher at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) (Sydney, Australia) and a Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship with Receptor Therapeutics and the University of Toronto (UofT). His scholarly route started with an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at UofT, then a Masters and PhD in Biomedical Engineering, both at UNSW. The focus of much of his work has been on the use of biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. In his spare time he enjoys playing sports, and is known to be an avid volleyball, badminton and basketball player.

Latest posts by Roshan Yoganathan (see all)

• Right Turn: Time to stop the bleeding - April 17, 2014
• Right Turn: Heart in a box – are we there yet? - March 7, 2014
• Biomimicry, bioadhesion and Dr. Jeffrey Karp: He’s a natural at what he does - February 18, 2014