In the classic horror movie Frankenstein, a mad scientist cuts up a bunch of corpses and sews the body parts together to create his own living monster. While today’s scientists probably won’t be rummaging through any graveyards, they might be creating their own organs – half human half animal to be exact.
The idea of a Franken-organ future led Agatha Haines, a student at Royal College of Art in London to propose the question, “If you’re prone to a disorder, how could you solve it through designing a new organ?” Agatha began tinkering with her own idea of a new organ made from both human cells and that of an eel. Sounds pretty freaky, right?
Dubbed Circumventive Organs, these conceptual implants would act as preventive defense against diseases that cause human organ breakdown. Not satisfied with just an idea, the aspiring organ designer came up with three concepts: The Electrostabilis Cardium, which acts like a defibrillator-type organ and uses an electric eel’s currents through a suction pad that attaches to the human heart. When a heart begins to fibrillate a shock wave jump starts it again.
The second, the Tremomucosa Expulsum is an organ that’s part human part rattlesnake (pretty cool to think that you could a have rattlesnake parts inside you). The organ would be used to treat cystic fibrosis and the strong rattlesnake muscles would attach to the trachea, creating a forceful vibration to dislodge mucus. The third bizarre organ, the Cerebrothrombal Dilutus would help prevent stroke by appropriating the cells from a leech’s salivary gland to release an anticoagulant when the pressure of a potential blood clot is present.
While the concept of these human/animal hybrid organs won’t be showing up on your insurance plan anytime soon, advances in bioprinting are happening. Some doctors (and lots of other people) think Agatha’s project ideas are more science fiction than possible reality, but the idea of having a half animal/half human heart instead of a mechanical pacemaker is incredibly intriguing to think about.
Via Wired