10/21/2026
Boston Children’s is proud to lead THUMPIN’ (Tissue-engineered Hearts Using Multimodal Printing in Newborns), a new research initiative bringing together Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and NTT Research to advance bioengineered heart tissues for infants and young children with congenital heart disease.
For children with complex heart defects, treatment can mean surgery after surgery as they grow. THUMPIN’ aims to change that by developing living cardiac tissues that can grow, function, and adapt with a child - with the ultimate goal of creating a complete, functioning heart.
Led by Drs. Pedro Del Nido and Kit Parker, alongside collaborators Drs. William Pu, Juan Melero-Martin, and Vassilios Bezzerides of Boston Children’s; Dr. Elena Aikawa of Mass General Brigham; and Dr. Joe Alexander of NTT Research, this initiative brings together experts across cardiac surgery, tissue engineering, stem cell biology, and more to help turn this vision into a future treatment option for children.
See the link in our bio to learn more.