Engineers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a breakthrough technology that uses light to stimulate heart cells in the lab.
The approach, reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could pave the way for new therapies to improve heart function without relying on genetic modification or invasive medical procedures.
The research team, led by Herdeline Ann Ardoña, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, created new biomolecules that allow heart muscle cells to respond to light.
This means that light can be used as a trigger to send signals to heart cells, helping them beat more rhythmically and develop features closer to those of mature human heart tissue.
Traditionally, scientists have relied on synthetic materials to grow heart tissue in the lab. While these materials can provide structural support, they typically act only as a passive scaffold, offering no active stimulation to the cells.
The new system developed by Ardoña’s group does more.
When exposed to certain wavelengths of light, it generates tiny electrical signals that interact with the cells. These signals prompt the cells to contract in a coordinated way and encourage stem cell–derived heart cells to take on characteristics of adult cardiac cells.
Ardoña explained that this is the first demonstration of light being directly converted into signals that heart cells can use.
By designing peptides—small chains of amino acids—the team was able to fine-tune how the biomolecules behave and how they interact with the cells.
This tunability makes it possible to control the strength and pattern of the signals, allowing researchers to guide the behavior of the developing tissue.
The implications of this technology are wide-ranging. For one, it could help researchers build better lab-grown models of the human heart, which are crucial for studying heart diseases and testing new drugs.
More accurate models can reveal how disease develops and progresses, providing insights that cannot be gained from less sophisticated systems.
In the future, this light-based stimulation approach might also contribute to medical treatments. For example, it could inspire new types of pacemaker technology that use light instead of electrical wires to regulate heart rhythms.
It may also help improve therapies using patient-derived stem cells by guiding them to form tissue that behaves more like natural adult heart muscle.
The research is still in its early stages. Ardoña and her team are now working to better understand how heart cells respond to the engineered biomolecules and the light-triggered signals.
They also plan to develop three-dimensional heart tissues that can respond to light in a similar way.
If successful, this could represent a major step toward combining bioengineering, materials science, and medicine to create innovative solutions for heart health.
