A European research team from Amsterdam and Eindhoven is developing an artificial heart that ‘fuses’ with the human body.

‘You could see a heart as a large curved vein with valves and muscle tissue around it.’ Carlijn Bouten, professor of regenerative medicine at Eindhoven University of Technology, is not impressed by the somewhat futuristic ambition of the European HybridHeart project: to develop an implantable bionic artificial heart. She makes clear it’s feasible, although there is still a very long way to go. ‘We’ve already succeeded in making veins and heart valves that properly function in the body and have become living materials’.