Great to know. I will look you up the next time I am down there. Thanks. That school is a hell of a lot bigger than it was when I was there.

As you are an FIT alum, Thoritsu, you will be interested to know that FIT has had a biomedical engineering department for the last 5 years that I helped found in 2008/2009. I am a co-PI on a project with relatively new faculty member Chris Bashur on tissue engineering < 6 mm diameter arteries. The larger ones you are discussing are relatively easy to transplant. The smaller arteries are much more difficult to get the materials properties correct because of wall thickness challenges. The next time you come back to Melbourne, I'll introduce you to him.

In general, we have four tissue engineering faculty, including me. The other three are better at it than I am.

It is indeed. The pulmonic and aortic valves are practically identical.
My aortic valve was bicuspid (like Arnold Schwarzenegger). I chose a procedure called the Ross Procedure (also picked by Arnold) after Donald Ross, which is for children. This takes the live pulmonic valve and puts it in the high-stress aortic position and a homograft (dead 28 yr old's leather (not alive tissue) valve) goes in the low-stress pulmonic position. I was in my 30's and able to out run (speed and stamina) high school kids. My heart and lungs were twice the size of a normal persons keeping up with the issue. All recovered in 8 weeks, and back to soccer. No drugs. No issues. No coumadin.

Still like to be using my own tissue, rather than 28 yr-old "leather". Who knows what leather will be like in another 20 years? I plan to still be playing soccer...ok at least keeper.

I think it's coming. And super-human organs shortly thereafter. We'll have to work out how to use it responsibly, but I don't see it stopping.

Is your pulmonary valve, which is adapted to supply the longs, tasked with supplying the whole body? If so, that sucks. It's the type of thing that might be easy to fix in a hundred years.