New form of pacemaker

Paper published 26th October:
Battery-free pacemaker uses light to regulate heartbeat
Researchers have developed a battery-free pacemaker that uses optogenetics to regulate the heart. They are hopeful that it could improve the management of arrhythmia.

See:https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.abq7469

 

1 Comments

Amazing piece of technology

by Gemita - 2022-11-06 10:03:31

Selwyn, thank you for this latest news and link.  Most of it was difficult to absorb, but I did my best with a technical research paper.  What I picked up though is truly exciting for the future.  

I see it has been researched using small animals (adult mice) since they are useful for gaining insight into the development of therapies, particularly in cardio and vascular disease.   I was surprised that the heart rate of the mouse averaged 500 bpm on some days which is normal apparently for an adult mouse, although I see the pygmy shrew, which weighs less than an ounce, has the fastest heartbeat of any mammal at 1,200 bpm.  

Although we don’t look like mice, we are biologically very similar it appears.  Almost all of the genes in mice share functions with the genes in humans which makes the mouse the model of choice for biomedical research.

How close are we Selwyn in trialling this new form of pacemaker on the human heart would you say?

By the way, welcome back

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A properly implanted and adjusted pacemaker will not even be noticeable after you get over the surgery.