Dr Chris Roche, a cardiac surgical trainee funded by HROz since 2019, has brought surgical skills and insights to the research team supervised by Dr Carmine Gentile – a bioprinting expert working towards producing heart patches made of special ‘bio-ink’.

Dr Roche has been working on a spin-off project to his PhD where he has designed and prototyped a surgical instrument to transplant patches to the heart via a keyhole robotic surgical approach. He recruited and supervised four multidisciplinary teams of over 20 contributors in total and after two years he recently tested the prototype for this. This world-first achievement is a completely new innovation which was not actually part of his original PhD plan but is an example of how when you start out on a pathway in research, you never know quite what it will lead to.

Dr Roche has recently had a first brief report paper published on his new surgical approach and surgical operation.  To read this recent publication click here.