Scientists at MSU have successfully grown a functioning human heart in one of their labs. It's a tiny heart, so the only current possible transplant donor would be the Grinch.

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According to MSU Today, these mini-hearts or "human heart organoids" will be used as "incredibly powerful models in which to study all kinds of cardiac disorders with a degree of precision unseen before”. These organoids are developed from stem cells obtained from consenting adults and turn into mini-hearts after being grown for a couple of weeks, "complete with all primary heart cell types and a functioning structure of chambers and vascular tissue". According to Dr. Aitor Aguirre, the senior author of the study documenting all this, “With our heart organoids, we can study the origin of congenital heart disease and find ways to stop it.”

But graduate student and author Yonatan Israeli says their organoids are far from the real thing, “They are, however, not as perfect as a human heart yet. That is something we are working toward.”

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