Royal Free team awarded GBP500k to trial artificial artery in patients (UK)

"An expert team at the Royal Free has received GBP500,000 to take their invention of an artificial artery from the laboratory to human trials within the next year. The grant from the Wellcome Trust means the team, led by George Hamilton, Professor of vascular surgery, and Alexander Seifalian, Professor of nanotechnology and tissue repair, is one step closer to making their invention available to thousands of patients with vascular disease. The team has developed a small diameter bypass graft made from a polymer material modified by nanotechnology, for use in coronary artery and lower limb arterial surgery. The material enables the graft to mimic the natural pulsing of a human blood vessel such as arteries delivering blood and nutrients from the heart to every cell, organ and muscle in the body. The wall of the artery is designed to be able to withstand blood pressure throughout a person’s lifetime and is normally very strong. If it is damaged by disease such as arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, the artery can become blocked, or in some patients the wall can weaken becoming an aneurysm, and it may rupture."