Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. Age: 33
One night while working in a lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, grad student Milica Radisic saw how “beautifully and perfectly” an individual cardiomyocyte was pulsating when she applied an electrical stimulus from a platinum electrode. She wondered if applying this same electrical impulse to multiple cells would cause them to beat together, simulating the contractions of an intact heart.
Long before this thought occurred to her, Radisic read an article about human tissue engineering by Robert Langer, while studying chemical engineering as an undergrad at McMaster University in Ontario.
Making a Play at Regrowing Hearts
“When I read that article I got totally excited,” Radisic says. “I wanted to do something that benefitted human health.” Radisic ...
