Firstly, let us consider our hearts.  Our hearts have never complained of beating since we were born.  They are an incredible evolution of biology - a miraculous muscular organ. How can something that complex be artificially produced?  Let us examine some recent and historical advances as well as Life Science Project Manager Roles related to the artificial heart.  The good news is that biology is getting a huge recent tailwind with the backing of the 4th industrial revolution powered by data points in biology, cloud computing, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence.  Scientists can now produce synthetic protein in a lab environment and computers can simulate protein structure before actual chemical reaction based on the image / data points available in the known protein structure present in the human heart.Scientists can synthetically weave those proteins one after another like Lego bricks and give it the shape and functionality of a heart.   This gives doctors and scientists hope that protein in the heart muscle can be artificially produced and a computer can stitch all these protein images together to print an artificial heart with a 3D printer.  While an artificial heart produced with a 3D printer seems possible, the question is whether it will be sustainable?  This is tough to answer but so were the many questions surrounding the historical advances of the artificial heart. Let us look at two of these advances:  

1. Some of the first breakthroughs for the Artificial Heart are attributed to Willem Johan Kolff, William DeVries and Robert Jarvik.  Dr. Kolff, a prolific inventor of artificial organs, implanted an artificial heart into a dog at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Kolff left the Cleveland Clinic and joined the University of Utah to pursue development of the artificial heart.  According to en-academic.com, “Over the years, more than 200 physicians, engineers, students and faculty developed, tested and improved Dr. Kolff's artificial heart. To help manage his many endeavors, Dr. Kolff assigned Project Managers. Each project was named after its Project Manager. Graduate student Robert Jarvik was the Project Manager for the artificial heart, which was subsequently renamed the Jarvik 7.”  The major milestone of the Jarvik-7 made scientists excited about future possibilities.
2. One of the most recent developments in artificial hearts happened earlier this year, July 16, 2021, at Duke University.  “A surgical team, led by Drs. Jacob Schroder and Carmelo Milano, successfully implanted a new-generation artificial heart in a 39-year-old man with heart failure, becoming the first center in North America to perform the procedure.”  This new generation artificial heart provides a lifeline and hope to patients awaiting a heart transplant.  

Finally, what are some ways we as life science Project Managers or Engineers can help with the future advances of the artificial heart?  As Project Managers we are uniquely positioned with our skills and expertise to engage in interdisciplinary team of doctors, scientists and regulators to help make projects in this area successful in record time and within budgets.  Here are just a few specific examples:

1. Help teams which create proteins with a lot of research in the cloud that contains state of the art image processing of structural biology so that they can experiment in a more agile way to simulate heart structure thus creating the best and powerful artificial heart.
2. Help research teams with paperwork and clinical trials by leveraging our credible Project Management skills on a multi-disciplinary team.
3. Help ensure the research effort is GXP compliant thus enabling products to safely reach more terminal patients so they can see more beautiful days.

As we approach the 40th year since Mr. Barney Clark (a dentist from Seattle) received the first artificial heart, we pause and reflect on the advances made, as well as stand in awe at the opportunities on the horizon; with Life Science Project Managers continuing to play a role at “the heart” of it all.