Synthetic artery

A team of researchers from UCL has won a £500,000 grant to develop a synthetic artery that mimics a natural artery - a development that could revolutionise the treatment of coronary heart disease.

UCL’s Prof Alexander Seifalian and Prof George Hamilton from the Royal Free Hospital and their team will use the Wellcome Trust grant to take their work from the laboratory to a pre-clinical trial.

The team has been developing a nanomaterial with mechanical properties similar to that of human arteries.

The nanomaterial’s inner surface has been modified to attract stem cells from blood circulating inside the body. It then converts these primary cells to endothelial cells - a type of cell that covers the interior of the natural blood vessel and protects it from blockage.

Seifalian, a leading expert in nanotechnology and regenerative medicine, said: ‘Coronary heart disease is a condition where one or more blood vessels of the heart become blocked. This causes the heart muscle to be starved of oxygen, which interferes with the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body, leading to infirmity and, if untreated, death.