Indian bioengineers are developing an artificial heart based on that of a cockroach. It promises to be much cheaper and more reliable than models used today.

Its fail-safe mechanism is its many blood-pumping chambers. Humans only have four and when one of them fails, it leads to a fatal cardiac arrest. The artifical heart though has 13 chambers which, just like the cockroach, can keep pumping healthily if one breaks down.

Prof. Sujoi Guha from Kharagpur Technological Institute says, “We build up pressure step-by-step in five chambers of the 13. Western model use just one chamber to pressurise blood in one move, and this can be damaging for living cells,” reports the RIA Novosti news agency.

The heart, constructed with metal and plastics, took researchers three years to develop. It is now being tested on frog, and the group plan to move onto bigger creatures – a goat – in May.

If the artificial heart proves to be reliable, it could hit the human market in three years. Developers say it will cost about $US 2,000 – around 30 times less then those used now.