US Patent Issued to Edwards Lifesciences on June 23 for "Self-growing heart valves" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,661,247, issued on June 23, was assigned to Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Irvine, Calif.).

"Self-growing heart valves" was invented by Nima V. Nia (Mission Viejo, Calif.), Hengchu Cao (Irvine, Calif.), Sakyasingh Tripathy (San Diego), Douglas Thomas Dominick (Irvine, Calif.), Bingquan Su (Irvine, Calif.), Behnood Miri (Irvine, Calif.) and Zahra Moyedi (Irvine, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Described herein are artificial valves that have a frame and leaflets that grow or expand with a patient. Upon placing the valve inside the patient, the valve expands as the annulus of the patient expands. The frame of the valve is configured to ...