ETH Meets You at the Tallinn Digital Summit
In Tallinn, Estonia on 29 September 2017, ETH Zurich researchers will exhibit a soft artificial heart - created using digital technologies - to EU heads of state at the Tallinn Digital Summit.
The Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), in cooperation with the President of the European Council and the European Commission, brings together EU heads of state or government for the Tallinn Digital Summit on Friday, 29 September 2017. Twenty-seven member states in the EU, including German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, are anticipated to be present during the summit.
The Estonian organisers extended a special invitation to researchers in ETH Zurich's Functional Materials Laboratory and Product Development Group to exhibit their prototype of a soft artificial heart created using 3D digital print technologies.
The heart of the matter
Combining their engineering expertise, Nicholas Cohrs and Anastasios Petrou, doctoral researchers working with Professor Wendelin Stark at ETH Zurich created the first soft artificial heart that looks and beats just like the real thing. Employing 3D print and digital technologies, they realized a silicon heart weighing just 390 grams. The prototype includes right and left ventricles and a pressurized air chamber to pump fluid, mimicking the contractions of a human heart and demonstrating the potential for 3D print technology to personalize organ transplants.
Part of the external pageZurich Heart project, Cohrs and Petrou, both engineers, looked to nature to address heart disease and the limitations of heart transplants. Current ventricular assist devices (VADs) that support weakened hearts provide a continuous blood flow leaving the patient without a natural pulse and a need for persistent medication to prevent Thrombosis. Scanning a real human heart, Cohrs and Petrou used soft silicone elastomer and digital technologies to create an artificial heart that uses pressurized air to pump blood through its chambers. Digital technology opens the doors to a future where personalized organs could be manufactured at heart centers and hospitals.
Press information and public exhibition
The ETH Zurich exhibit and will be open to members of accredited media on 28 - 29 September 2017. To schedule one-on-one interviews with a member of the research team, please contact the for the event.
Soft Artificial Heart Media Kit - all images and video material must be credited "ETH Zurich"
Raw video footage of the soft artificial heart - "ETH Zurich" must be credited on screen
external pageScientific publication
The general public are invited to view the exhibit on Saturday, 30 September 2017.