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Episode "How to Build a Beating Heart"

Published
  • Dr. Steven Wolf with Cpl. Isaias Hernandez in the Brooke Army Medical Center's limb salvage gym. Hernandez's quadricep was severely compromised by an IED explosion. After receiving treatment for the muscle damage with ECM, Hernandez experienced significant muscle regrowth. He is planning on undergoing a second surgery to implant more ECM into the injury site.
  • Dr. Jorg Gerlach's skin gun, used to spray skin stem cells on to burn victims.
  • Dr. Anthony Atala holds fully engineered trachea tissue. Trachea tissue, which is composed of cartilage, will be instrumental in helping surgeons correct birth defects and throat cancers.
  • A researcher at Draper laboratory pumps blood into a silicon wafer device that replicates the human capillary system.
  • Rat lungs hang in a bioreactor at Dr. Harald Ott's lab.
  • Sally, an axolotl salamander is beginning to form a blastema, a cluster of stem cells, on her left arm. Salamanders are one of the few species that can regrow their limbs. Scientists are trying to unlock the genetic rules that govern salamander limb regeneration in the hopes of rewriting human genetic code to tip the balance away from scar tissue formation and in favor of regeneration.
  • A lab researcher applies cells to a finger scaffold at Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
  • Dr. Stephen Badylak demonstrates his ECM
  • The structure of cotton candy bears an uncanny resemblance to human capillaries.
  • A human heart beats in Harald Ott's lab at Massachusetts General Hospital.
  • Katherine Kulig holds a mouse with an engineered ear on its back.
  • Sally, an axolotl salamander is beginning to form a blastema, a cluster of stem cells, on her left arm. Salamanders are one of the few species that can regrow their limbs. Scientists are trying to unlock the genetic rules that govern salamander limb regeneration in the hopes of rewriting human genetic code to tip the balance away from scar tissue formation and in favor of regeneration.
  • Dr. Anthony Atala with a decellularized kidney. He washes out the cells from a donor kidney leaving a template for new kidney cells to grow on.
  • A tissue engineered finger being seeded with cells. The finger will receive several types of cells -- bone, muscle, cartilage, and skin -- before it is complete.
  • Cells are washed away from this rat heart leaving only the scaffolding structure of the heart.
  • Dr. Joseph Vacanti has been working on a tissue engineered ear for decades. Vacanti's ear is made of a biodegradable scaffold that when implanted, will dissolve, leaving only the
  • Dr. Anthony Atala watches an engineered heart valve be exercised. A machine pumps the valve to strengthen the muscle so it will be ready to pump on its own once inside the body.
  • An engineered ear in culture medium. The synthetic ear scaffold receives cartilage cells and

  • How To Build Heart 18

    Dr. Steven Wolf with Cpl. Isaias Hernandez in the Brooke Army Medical Center's limb salvage gym. Hernandez's quadricep was severely compromised by an IED explosion. After receiving treatment for the muscle damage with ECM, Hernandez experienced significant muscle regrowth. He is planning on undergoing a second surgery to implant more ECM into the injury site.

  • How To Build Heart 08

    Dr. Jorg Gerlach's skin gun, used to spray skin stem cells on to burn victims.

  • How To Build Heart 11

    Dr. Anthony Atala holds fully engineered trachea tissue. Trachea tissue, which is composed of cartilage, will be instrumental in helping surgeons correct birth defects and throat cancers.

  • How To Build Heart 06

    A researcher at Draper laboratory pumps blood into a silicon wafer device that replicates the human capillary system.

  • How To Build Heart 02

    Rat lungs hang in a bioreactor at Dr. Harald Ott's lab.

  • How To Build Heart 16

    Sally, an axolotl salamander is beginning to form a blastema, a cluster of stem cells, on her left arm. Salamanders are one of the few species that can regrow their limbs. Scientists are trying to unlock the genetic rules that govern salamander limb regeneration in the hopes of rewriting human genetic code to tip the balance away from scar tissue formation and in favor of regeneration.

  • How To Build Heart 09

    A lab researcher applies cells to a finger scaffold at Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

  • How To Build Heart 15

    Dr. Stephen Badylak demonstrates his ECM "Hershey bar" that he hopes will regenerate muscle in soldiers' legs. ECM stands for "Extra Cellular Matrix". Badylak's ECM is made from the decellularized bladder of a pig. He believes that the regenerative properties of bladder lining underlie his ECM's therapeutic powers.

  • How To Build Heart 10

    The structure of cotton candy bears an uncanny resemblance to human capillaries.

  • How To Build Heart 01

    A human heart beats in Harald Ott's lab at Massachusetts General Hospital.

  • How To Build Heart 04

    Katherine Kulig holds a mouse with an engineered ear on its back.

  • How To Build Heart 17

    Sally, an axolotl salamander is beginning to form a blastema, a cluster of stem cells, on her left arm. Salamanders are one of the few species that can regrow their limbs. Scientists are trying to unlock the genetic rules that govern salamander limb regeneration in the hopes of rewriting human genetic code to tip the balance away from scar tissue formation and in favor of regeneration.

  • How To Build Heart 12

    Dr. Anthony Atala with a decellularized kidney. He washes out the cells from a donor kidney leaving a template for new kidney cells to grow on.

  • How To Build Heart 14

    A tissue engineered finger being seeded with cells. The finger will receive several types of cells -- bone, muscle, cartilage, and skin -- before it is complete.

  • How To Build Heart 03

    Cells are washed away from this rat heart leaving only the scaffolding structure of the heart.

  • How To Build Heart 05

    Dr. Joseph Vacanti has been working on a tissue engineered ear for decades. Vacanti's ear is made of a biodegradable scaffold that when implanted, will dissolve, leaving only the "native tissue" of the recipient.

  • How To Build Heart 07

    Dr. Anthony Atala watches an engineered heart valve be exercised. A machine pumps the valve to strengthen the muscle so it will be ready to pump on its own once inside the body.

  • How To Build Heart 13

    An engineered ear in culture medium. The synthetic ear scaffold receives cartilage cells and "cooks" in an incubator that mimics conditions inside the human body.

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