Australia is celebrating an amazing revolution in biomedical engineering that’s giving the gift of life, in the shape of a heart
— By Mike McRae
Early in 2025, a 40-year-old Australian man walked out of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney without a pulse. Where his old heart once sat was now one made of titanium, making him the sixth person ever to be kept alive with the revolutionary new metal organ.
For just over 100 days, a spinning rotor inside the engineered organ quietly pushes blood around the man’s body, taking over the duties of his tired old heart until a donor organ became available.
This incredible design is the work of BiVACOR, a US-based medical device company founded by Australian biomedical engineer Dr Daniel Timms.
For a quarter of a century, Daniel and his team worked to find a way to buy more time for patients with heart failure to be fitted with a donor heart. This was no small challenge.
To give patients of all shapes and sizes the freedom to move around and remain healthy, the heart has to be small enough to fit inside different bodies, lightweight, long-lasting, conveniently powered and safe from being attacked by the body’s immune system.
Roughly the size of a clenched fist, BiVACOR’s Total Artificial Heart uses magnets to levitate a spinning rotor that moves blood through the circulatory system, limiting any moving parts that could wear out over time.
Under laboratory conditions, the artificial heart has continued spinning for more than four years.
Just under 144,000 Australians live with heart failure. In many cases, those with the condition need a new heart to survive. And with just a few thousand potential donors available each year, the odds of a new lease on life are slim.
This new artificial heart is still being tested for safety and efficiency. In time, it could be sold to give some of the thousands of patients worldwide more quality time with loved ones.
Watch this
Want to see the BiVACOR’s Total Artificial Heart in action? Check out this video. Warning: it’s a bit gory, but in this case, it’s part of the job.
This article originally appears in Careers with STEM: Engineering 2025.
