A churro-making machine has led to a scientific breakthrough: a device designed to create vascular grafts within the human body.
Pharmacist and chemist Marcelo Muñoz was inspired while waiting in a queue at a festival food truck, and this eureka moment has triggered a seismic shift in the future of treating coronary artery disease.
Muñoz is based at the Bio-Engineering and Therapeutic Solutions (BEaTS) Laboratory at the Ottawa Heart Institute. He and BEaTS director Emilio Alarcón, PhD, spent weeks with their team exploring new ways to make bypass surgery procedures safer and more efficient using bioengineered materials.
He said: ‘We’d been trying to figure out how to create blood vessels for use inside the body quickly and reliably. That churro machine was the spark we needed that showed a possible path forward.’
As dough was extruded from a machine, Muñoz watched how it wrapped perfectly around a central rod to form a hollow cylinder before being dropped into bubbling oil, crisping into a golden, cinnamon-sugar-coated tube.
‘I thought – why not do something similar for a blood vessel,’ he added.
Since then, Muñoz, Alarcón, and the BEaTS team have worked to miniaturise the process and adapt it using biopolymers – naturally derived or engineered materials that are safe for use inside the body.
Affectionately known as The Churro Project among colleagues, Muñoz’s concept now serves as the foundation for a device designed to produce vascular grafts directly within the human body, potentially removing the need for open-chest surgery.
Marc Ruel, MD, of the Ottawa Heart Institute, estimates that 80-90% of his CABG patients have suitable vessels for grafting, but 10–20% – often older adults or those with diabetes – have less optimal vessels, which can potentially affect long-term success.
Annually, about 1,000 CABG procedures are performed at the Institute, with 100-200 patients at higher risk due to poor graft quality.
Traditional CABG involves sternotomy, but minimally invasive methods are emerging.
The device extrudes synthetic vascular grafts from liquid biopolymers in real time, forming tubes that mimic natural blood vessels.
They also created a ‘landing pad’ for attachment inside the aorta, potentially allowing CABG to be performed via small incisions. Although still in its early stages, the device could soon be deployed via a catheter, with surgeons ‘printing’ new vessels directly onto the heart.
Currently tested in labs with promising results, the team plans to transition to peptide-based biomaterials for improved long-term integration.
The goal is to provide minimally invasive options for patients with limited alternatives, revolutionising the future of cardiovascular surgery.
The concept is detailed in the peer-reviewed journal, Advanced Materials Technologies, in April.
The authors write: ‘We expect that this technology will provide CABG surgeons a tool with unprecedented 3D control for the application of extruded grafts to perform on-the-spot revascularisation procedures.’
