In the United States, heart valve disease affects 5.2 million people, and 156,000 heart valve procedures are performed every year. There are two main commercial products used in aortic valve replacement—either a tissue valve transplanted from a bovine or porcine donor or a metal, mechanical valve. Both valve types have lifespan limitations, and developing a self-healing valve from human tissue requires a lot of work.
To develop self-healing valves, many research designs use a bottom-up approach based around “growing” a valve using cells and scaffolding. Instead, CaRE's prosthetic heart valve fabrication technique uses a top-down approach. In this approach, CaRE is attempting to 3D print and electrospin cells to create lay tissue into a predesigned 2D sheet. In a fashion similar to origami, the sheet then folds into three dimensions to create a functional valve.
Brandon J. Tefft, Ph.D.Principal Investigator
William YuanProject Lead
Tefft BJ, Choe JA, Young MD, Hennessy RS, Morse DW, Bouchard JA, Hedberg HJ, Consiglio JF, Dragomir-Daescu D, Simari RD, Lerman A. Cardiac Valve Bioreactor for Physiological Conditioning and Hydrodynamic Performance Assessment. Cardiovasc Eng Technol. 2019 03;10(1):80-94 PMID: 30311149 PMCID: PMC6541400 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85061993924 10/13/2018
Jana S, Tefft BJ, Spoon DB, Simari RD (2014). Scaffolds for tissue engineering of cardiac valves. Acta Biomaterialia, 10(7): 2877-2893. [PMID: 24675108]
Spoon DB, Tefft BJ, Lerman A, Simari RD (2013). Challenges of biological valve development. Interventional Cardiology, 5(3): 319-334.
