Machines powered by heart muscles

Fri, 09/07/2007 - 12:32 - NLN

Researchers at Harvard University have made several small mechanical devices powered by heart muscle harvested from rats. The mechanical devices include pumps, a device that "walks," and one that swims.

The scientists made the novel machines to study the behavior of muscles and provide a platform for testing heart drugs. But one day these devices could be used as parts of new types of robots that can change shape.

The research, featured in the current issue of Science, began as an attempt to grow working muscle tissue to patch holes in congenitally defective hearts, or to replace dead tissue after a heart attack. In the course of this work, Adam Feinberg, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Harvard biomedical-engineering professor Kevin Kit Parker, found that if patterned correctly and applied to carefully shaped sheets of plastic, the muscle could be used to make the plastic bend and twist in various ways.

Read full story in Technology Review