A soft implantable robot heart for people with severe heart failure. To further develop this, the consortium Holland Hybrid Heart has received 10 million euros from the National Science Agenda. The soft robot heart can be implanted in the chest of patients with severe heart failure and take over the function of the real heart. SBMC will take responsibility for the research required on the biomaterials used in the robot heart.
The consortium Holland Hybrid Heart (HHH) brings together universities, higher professional education, companies, and patient organizations. Cardiothoracic surgeon Jolanda Kluin from the Erasmus MC Thorax Center leads the collaboration. Kluin says, “We want to offer patients a good and livable alternative to transplantation with a natural heart.”
Globally, there are over 23 million people with heart failure, for whom the best treatment is receiving a donor heart. However, there is a severe shortage of donor hearts. In the Netherlands, there are 250,000 patients with heart failure, of which half die within five years.
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Jolanda Kluin got the idea for a soft robot heart when she saw the work of engineer Bas Overvelde (scientific group leader at AMOLF and TU/e) in the media. He works with robots made of soft and flexible materials that can react to changes in their environment. Think, for example, of a robot that resembles an octopus or a starfish. Kluin says, “When I saw a soft robot moving like an octopus, I thought: we should be able to make a heart like this too!” Bas explains, “These kinds of artificial muscles, made of soft materials, are ideal for building an artificial heart that mimics the functioning of a natural heart.” Because the inner lining of the Hybrid Heart consists of cells from the patient’s own body, it will resemble a real heart even more.
The team will use the funding to take a new step in the development of the soft robot heart. Within 10 years, the heart could be used as an alternative to heart transplants.
