--- title: "Scientists Create Flapping “Biohybrid” Fish From Human Heart Cells" description: "A team of scientists from Harvard and Emory University created 500 \"biohybrid\" fish that had their tail fins lined with human heart cells." date: "2022-02-11" modified: "2022-02-11" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/biohybrid-fish-human-heart-cells" categories: - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "heart cells" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Create Flapping “Biohybrid” Fish From Human Heart Cells ![A team of scientists from Harvard and Emory University created 500 "biohybrid" fish that had their tail fins lined with human heart cells.]() *\Image: Michael Rosnach/Keel Yong Lee/Sung-Jin Park, Kevin Kit Parker\* ## Flappy Fish A team of scientists from Harvard and Emory University created 500 "biohybrid" fish that had their tail fins lined with human heart cells, [*CNET* reports](). The goal wasn't to create the aquarium of the future, but to study human heart cells and the rhythm of their beats. The tiny structures sat unattended for a while in a lab. But then, to the scientists' delight, the small fish jumped to life. "We basically stored them in our incubator, and then we totally forgot about them for two or three weeks," Sung-Jin Park, a former postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and co-author of [a study]() about the project published this week in the journal *Science*, told *CNET*. "When we opened the incubator, all of the fish were kind of swimming by themselves." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PudGp0BeHTw ## Flop Flop The strange fish "swam" freely in a pool of nutrients for roughly 100 days while the scientists tracked their movements. As heart cells are wont to do, they contracted and stretched repeatedly, causing their tail fins to move back and forth. "We don't need any external stimulation," Park told *CNET*. "They stimulate themselves, they exercise by themselves and they get stronger." Park has big ambitions and is hoping to eventually send "this kind of biohybrid robotic system to space," as he told the publication, arguing it'd be a highly effective way to study microgravity-induced muscle atrophy, something that's been plaguing astronauts who spend extended periods of time in space. The team still has one substantial hurdle to overcome: they have no control over when their heart cells beat. But for now, they're hoping the study could lead to better pacemakers or even artificial hearts. "Our ultimate goal is to build a \[fully functioning\] heart, but meanwhile, we're trying to build a more mature cardiac tissue," Park told *CNE*T. **READ MORE:** [Scientists built a fish out of human heart cells and watched it swim with each beat]() \[*CNET*\] ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()