Up until then, scientists had successfully printed only simple tissues, without blood vessels.The Tel Aviv team said it hopes to teach the 3-D heart to behave like a human heart. Then, they will transplant ones like it into animals and eventually into humans, hopefully within the next 10 years.The Daily Mail article explained that European Union-funded research has already demonstrated that the technology is possible. The device is currently being patented and will first be tested on animals for five years, before hopefully being transplanted into the first human in 2028.“In the hybrid heart, the beating power comes from soft robots,” Kluin explained to the paper. “Soft robots are fabricated from materials with the stiffness that resembles human tissue… The soft-robotics muscles precisely mimic the human heart, so the hybrid heart really beats like a human heart. The hybrid heart is lined by the patient’s own cells, preventing clotting, infection and reaction… Energy transfer is wireless so the patient experiences real freedom.” She told the British paper that what used to seem radical or ambitious is no longer science fiction. “What people with heart failure can dream, hybrid hearts can achieve,” she said.Kluin is now applying for an additional £30 million in funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) through its Big Beat Challenge to keep the project going.Noted Prof. Sir Nilesh Samani, BHF medical director, said, “It represents the single biggest investment in pioneering science in the BHF’s 60-year history.”