The beat
goes on
How breakthrough biomedical engineering developments at Bath are laying the groundwork for the future of cardiac devices
The heart is the body’s tireless engine, beating more than 100,000 times every day. Until it doesn’t.
Around 10% of the UK population is living with heart disease, and roughly a quarter of all deaths are heart related.
Medical research is vital in reducing the impact of these conditions, but a growing sector is proving to be a powerful tool in the fight against heart disease and failure.
Clinical investigations into breakthrough medical devices reached record highs in 2025, and the University of Bath is emerging as a hub of innovation at this intersection of engineering and medicine.
From the student-led project, Team Bath Heart, working towards developing a fully artificial heart to ground-breaking battery-free medical implants powered by the body’s blood sugars that could revolutionise pacemakers, Bath is unlocking a new era of bionic heart health.
Team Bath Heart
Worldwide, 50,000 people urgently need a heart transplant, while only 5,000 procedures are performed each year. This shortfall is due to a scarcity of donors – the biggest challenge in heart transplantation – leading to long and unpredictable waiting times for patients.
Now, a group of Bath students is tackling this problem with tech. Team Bath Heart is a student-led project developing and refining a total artificial heart (TAH), an implantable device that does the pumping normally performed by a heart while patients wait for a transplant.
Since 2022, the team has entered the annual HeartHackathon – a global student competition to design and build a TAH – and is one of the most decorated in the contest. Team Bath Heart won the competition two years running and last year was awarded Most Advanced Design.
"Inclusive practices continue to guide our mission"
The team – now comprising more than 100 students spanning 18 disciplines – followed up on this international acclaim with a double win at the Engineering Talent Awards 2025.
Last year’s success was driven by their equity-focused device designed for smaller patients and women, groups frequently underrepresented in cardiovascular device trials.
One study found that women made up just 29% of participants in cardiovascular device studies, while only 61% of female patients are compatible with the SynCardia, the only artificial heart made for women. Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in women.
The female-led 2025 team set about changing this, building on previous years’ innovations to shrink the design further, refine the wireless charging system, and test its surgical compatibility.
“Our mission to design a total artificial heart tailored for female and smaller patients reflects our commitment to embedding EDI principles directly into our engineering work,” says team lead Alabama Cawley.
The team is currently engaging with legal experts to ensure that, if there is commercial interest in the device in the future when it is sufficiently advanced, they have the relevant documentation to ensure regulatory compliance.
“The whole team has worked incredibly hard over the last year to manufacture a working prototype. The experimental testing they’ve done demonstrates the progress of the technology from design towards a functional artificial heart,” says Dr Katharine Fraser, lead academic advisor to the project.
“Over the past few years, the team has experienced remarkable growth. Throughout this expansion, TBH has remained deeply committed to embedding inclusion into everything we do – shaping our culture and guiding our mission.”
Fluid dynamics of blood
In the development of implantable heart devices that pump blood either in place of or alongside the heart, the fluid dynamics of blood is a crucial – but complicated – consideration.
If the forces acting on the blood are too great, then the sensitive cells and proteins that it comprises can be damaged, causing clots and increased risk of bleeding. But, because of a lack of research, calculating these stresses is difficult.
Now, a team of researchers at the University – the Cardiovascular and Biofluids Engineering Research Group – is studying and modelling blood to gain a greater understanding, leading to more advanced devices and fewer complications for patients.
Led by Dr Katharine Fraser, the multi-disciplinary group has several research areas and partnerships with industry that are pushing the field forward. Their motivation? “Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading killers in the world, so we want to make devices that allow people to live longer, healthier, fuller lives – it’s as simple as that,”
says Katharine.
Their work is underpinned by new ways of understanding and modelling blood flow using ultrasound and AI, which is deepening the understanding of how blood behaves, informing the optimisation of mechanical cardiac pumps.
The picture for the one in 1,000 babies born with imminent heart failure is bleak. The present clinical standard device is bulky, invasive and is known to cause dangerous clotting, leading to a 20–30% risk of strokes. The alternative – using pumps designed for adults – comes with its own potentially fatal complications.
"This smaller pump will reduce the impact of the surgery and mean more people are eligible, saving more lives.”
So, the group is using its data to develop the NeoVAD, a specialised heart pump for infants alongside academic partners at Texas Heart Institute and Baylor College of Medicine.
Another project run with industry partners Cardiology Devices is MyoCaid, a small pump that sits inside the aorta, in contrast to the current standard known as an LVAD, which acts as an extra ventricle, the heart’s pump.
“It works with the heart, rather than alongside it. That means it doesn’t need to pump as fast. Slower spinning means less blood damage and a smaller device,” says Katharine.
“Often, it’s older people who need these devices, but the procedure to implant them would be too traumatic. This smaller pump will reduce the impact of the surgery and mean more people are eligible, saving more lives.”
Katharine and a team of PhD students are also working with industry to develop a TAH – Scandinavian Real Heart. The University is assisting with the computational modelling of blood flow through the device.
The device, the first in the world with atria, the reservoirs that hold blood before being pumped, mimics a natural, gentle blood flow pattern, reducing the risk of complications – developments made possible by the University’s simulations.
Pacemaker powered by blood
A new generation of implantable medical devices powered by natural sugars in the body could enable unprecedented miniaturisation of devices like pacemakers after a Bath-led research team received over £2 million in funding.
The GLUTRONICS project is set to develop glucose-powered fuel cells, eliminating the need for bulky battery packs that may require recharging or replacement.
“Our ambition is to advance research into glucose fuel cells beyond the state-of-the-art”
Despite downsizing, batteries still often account for more than 80% of a device’s volume and weight and require risk-carrying surgeries for replacement and maintenance.
The project team is creating miniature, lightweight, and long-lasting glucose fuel cells that convert blood sugars into useful energy at the scale of millionths of a watt, mimicking the way organs extract power from sugars in the food we eat.
The project’s leader, Professor Mirella Di Lorenzo, Associate Dean in the University’s Faculty of Engineering and Design says: “Our ambition is to advance research into glucose fuel cells beyond the state-of-the-art, with a system approach that goes beyond electrode chemistry, to include electronics, device-body integration strategies, manufacturing, regulatory frameworks and solutions co-developed by patients and the public.”
Ferroelectric fabrication
Biomedical implants save countless lives every year, yet every surgically implanted device carries a risk of infection. Around one in ten implant procedures can lead to complications when bacteria cling to surfaces.
Now, a team of Bath researchers has developed a way to eliminate the threat. The team has created a new ferroelectric composite material with anti-microbial properties by 3D-printing multiple materials together.
Ferroelectricity is a characteristic of some polar materials that generate a surface charge in response to a change in environment. This leads to reactions that create free radicals known as reactive oxygen species that selectively eradicate bacteria by breaking cell walls or damaging their DNA.
“The approach could dramatically reduce post-surgical infections”
Using a multi-material manufacturing process, Bath engineers have embedded electrically responsive particles into a biodegradable polymer to produce porous “scaffolds” that generate these microscopic electrical charges.
In lab tests, the ferroelectric composite showed remarkable performance, killing around 70% of aggressive E. coli within just 15 minutes of contact and completely eliminating bacteria in contaminated samples.
Dr Hamideh Khanbareh, lecturer in materials and structures at Bath’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, says that the breakthrough has wide-ranging implications for future medical implants like heart pumps, stents and artificial valves. The approach could dramatically reduce post-surgical infections, improve patient outcomes, and ease the cost burden of further treatments.
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