PlayRevolutionary artificial heart
Published: Tuesday, 28 October 2008, 5:07PM
Scientists have unveiled a working prototype of an artificial heart which could one day replace life-saving transplants.
A French team led by heart specialist Alan Carpentier says the electronic device overcomes the drawbacks of previous models.
If authorities give the go-ahead, biomedical firm Carmat, a start-up funded by the European space and defence group EADS, France's state innovation agency, venture capital firm Truffle and Carpentier himself, will produce it at a site near Paris.
It will be ready for clinical trial by 2011, the French professor, who is head of the European research team behind the project, said.
Professor Carpentier said: "I couldn't stand seeing young, active people dying aged 40 from massive heart attacks."
The revolutionary life-size mixture of animal tissue, titanium and missile technology - which is covered in specially-treated tissue to avoid rejection by the body's immune system - comes three decades after the world's first human heart transplant.
The heart weighs around a kilo (2.2lbs) and the only external part of the man-made organ is its battery, which has a five-hour charge life.
Heart disease is among the world's biggest killers, claiming 17 million lives per year.
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