New ‘heart’ raises hope of major medical advances
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Published
14 February 2024
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In a pioneering development in the field of medical research, a complex cluster of heart cells with cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been grown using stem cells at a research laboratory at the University of East London.
The research carried out by Dr Prashant Ruchaya, senior lecturer at the University’s School of Health, Sport and Bioscience, involved growing the stem cells in a dish and differentiating them into heart tissue, so they function like a miniature human heart, complete with a heartbeat. Because they have heart disease they could be of enormous value in devising treatments for CVD, which kills one in six people globally.
The researchers are also looking to harness the power of predictive AI as a diagnostic tool in their work with stem cells. It’s hoped AI will help them understand the intricacies of heart disease and its relationship with the ageing process and regeneration. The stem cell hearts are being used as models to assist scientists in understanding the disease's mechanisms, enabling them to target effective treatments for it better.
While not a fully formed heart, the ‘heart in a dish’ does have many of the characteristics of the normal human organ, providing researchers with an opportunity to study CVD in a controlled and dynamic environment without the need for animal experiments. There’s particular interest in seeing if the use of AI can help accelerate advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of age-related heart conditions.
Dr Prashant Ruchaya said,
CVD remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide, and aging is a significant risk factor for its development. Our research aims to comprehensively explore how aging influences the mechanisms underlying heart diseases, ultimately leading to innovative approaches in mitigating the impact of cardiovascular conditions on older populations.
“We are working on cutting-edge research here in developing new disease models and developing AI to predict disease earlier and to develop new treatments to treat heart disease.
“Intricate changes in the contractions of a heart when they contract and relax are very hard to detect with the human eye, and the use of AI will mean the intricate changes will be able to be detected through the changes in the shape of the cells as they beat. These changes can be used as a prognostic marker for ageing - either healthy ageing, or potentially detrimentally ageing, and therefore having a diseased heart model could revolutionise treatments and be a game changer in the field of diagnostics.”
The AI has been developed in collaboration with Dr Nadeem Qazi, AI Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, UEL.
Dr Ruchaya is open to collaborating with other researchers and organisations with an interest in his field of research. He can be contacted to discuss how his work can be used more widely to help answer key questions in improving our understanding of CVD.
Dr Ruchaya’s work ties in with UEL’s ongoing ‘Year of Science’ 2024, which is set to culminate in the holding of the British Science Festival on our Docklands campus in September. We are marking the year with a series of exciting events showcasing our ground-breaking research and UEL’s activities in areas such as sustainability, health and early years.
The Year of Science will also explore how technology and AI are impacting lives, careers and communities in a variety of ways, and how science can be used to create a greener, fairer and healthier world. The School of Health, Sport and Bioscience is home to several courses in the medical field including BSc (Hons) Medical Physiology and BEng (Hons) Biomedical Engineering.