A University of Akron research lab received a $200,000 American Heart Association award to fund the development of a new generation of heart valve implants.
The Institutional Research Enhancement Award will support the BioEngineering for Translational Applications Laboratory, or BETA Lab, which is headed by Hossein Ravanbakhsh, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Current standard heart valve replacements, which regulate blood flow, are made of metal and traditionally inserted through open-heart surgery. The group is working to substitute these with valves made of shape memory polymers that degrade in the body, eliminate the need to replace the valve and are inserted through small incisions instead.
These polymers are being made directly in the lab, with Ebrahim Tajik, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Engineering Program, developing the material, which is almost ready. Luke Ramsier, a third-year undergraduate studying biomedical engineering,has completed about 80% of the structural concept.
“There is an urgent, unmet need in developing fully polymeric heart valve implants,” Ravanbakhsh said. “The idea is novel … and the reason why it is important is that we are synthesizing different aspects of science, and we are integrating them into one product.”
The award money will cover tuition for graduate research assistants and wages for student employees. It also will help purchase lab supplies, including 3D printers — the primary technology used to create the heart valves.
“This is just the start of the story,” Ravanbakhsh said. “We are starting with the heart valves… but we have ongoing projects on other organs in the body, and we can expand the technology to different organs.”
How the new heart valve implants will work
Heart valve replacements are needed when a diseased valve cannot be repaired, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Untreated heart valve disease could reduce blood flow and become life-threatening.
These new heart valve implants are designed to be less invasive and more patient-centered.
They not only eliminate the need for metal implants, but Ravanbakhsh said they don’t require external stimuli to expand when they reach the heart. Instead, the origami-style structure can open up on its own when it is exposed to certain temperatures — in this case, body temperature.
“Cells generally like to attach to polymers rather than metals, so human cells can grow inside our polymeric heart valves,” Ravanbakhsh said. “Down the road, the polymer will be degraded, and the whole heart valve is made of the human tissue.”
This is specifically beneficial for kids because their bodies continue to grow, he added, meaning no replacement is required.
To develop the polymer material, Tajik is using a rheometer, which measures the mechanical properties of a material.
Long-term plans is to print materials in clinics
“We were looking for something that we can open … without any external manipulation, and for us, shape memory polymers that could respond to any physiological triggers in the body was the best thing that could work,” Tajik said.
To develop the structure of the valves, Ramsier said he took inspiration from preliminary research Tajik did on similar concepts, like heart stents.
“You need to have some sort of design on the outside that allows it to predictably crimp in and expand back out,” Ramsier said. “Otherwise, you don’t know what is going to happen.”
After the development of both the structure and material is completed, Ravanbakhsh said the lab will integrate these two parts and use their bioprinters to fabricate artificial heart valves.
According to their 10-year plan, they will then test the valves outside the body to make sure they don’t induce cytotoxicity to living cells, in animal models, in pig samples in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic and then move into clinical studies on humans.
Right now, Tajik said the valves are just one specific dimension — but not all humans need the same size.
In the long-term, Tajik said he hopes they can get this material on the shelves so people can print it in a clinic to whatever heart valve size is needed in a specific patient.
Other applications of shape memory polymers
The shape memory polymers can be used in multiple ways. The lab also is in the early stage of working on a project creating patches with this material that can cover wounds in internal organs.
“They’re very flexible,” Ravanbakhsh said. “You can roll those patches, you can send them to the body and at the wound site, they will open up, and they will attach to the wound site.”
He said the patches could also be equipped with drugs, which would accelerate healing by applying them directly to the wound site. Specifically, these patches could be used for endometriosis.
Another use of the polymer material is for attaching ruptured nerves. Currently, this is done through stitches, which isn’t the best-case scenario, Ravanbakhsh said. Instead, this material can wrap around the divided parts of the nerve and induce nerve tissue regeneration on its own.
University of Akron has long been known for polymer science
“The University of Akron is the hottest spot for polymer engineering and polymer science,” Ravanbakhsh said.
The university was ranked the No. 1 polymer science and plastics engineering program in the world in 2025, among more than 1,000 programs. It has been ranked toward the top of the list since 2022.
Tajik said the university is unique in that it has three facilities used for polymer characterization that are not often found on campuses.
It also was home to Joseph Kennedy, who was a pioneer in the field of heart valves and polymeric stems. Kennedy developed drug-eluting polymers, a coating that slowly releases medicine to prevent scar tissue over post-heart surgery stents.
Kennedy died in 2024, but Ravanbakhsh said his lab is collaborating with another professor to continue some of Kennedy’s projects.
Atmosphere of the BETA Lab
Ravanbakhsh said when he established the BETA Lab in UA’s Auburn Science Engineering Center about 2½ years ago, Tajik was the first Ph.D. student hired.
Now, there are nine students actively working on projects in the lab, including Ramsier, who joined in May 2024.
The overarching goal of the lab is to develop functional biomaterials and biofabrication technologies for “tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and therapeutic applications,” according to its website.
Ravanbakhsh said when he received the email that his lab won the AHA grant, he was very excited.
A week or two later, he received another email from the National Science Foundation that a separate proposal, also on the subject of heart valves, received funding as well.
Chelsea Caldwell, communications director for the American Heart Association, said the Institutional Research Enhancement Award is meant for investigators at smaller universities that don’t receive a lot of federal funding.
“The AIREA award recipients engage their students in the research, which gives students in STEM disciplines exposure to research careers in their fields,” she said.
Both Ramsier and Tajik said they have loved their time working in the lab.
“The heart valve can grow with the person,” Ravanbakhsh said. “In general, eliminating the metals from the human body is beneficial for every group of human.”
Lauren Cohen is a community reporting intern for the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron. The position is funded through a grant from the Knight Foundation. The Knight Foundation is a financial support of Signal Akron.