IISc students develop active heart preservation container, wins James Dyson Award 2021

LifeBox extends the out-of-body viable time during transport for transplant

The national winners for the James Dyson Awards 2021, have been announced, and the invention of LifeBox by Deval Karia from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has been adjudicated as the national winner for this year’s edition.

The inability to move hearts from donor to recipient quickly is a challenge that patients face in India. LifeBox tackles this problem with a system that extends the preservation time of the heart to allow for increased travel time and distances.

There are two sub-systems within the device: cooling and perfusion/flushing. A peristaltic pump drives the preservation fluid from a reservoir to the heart which is housed within a chamber. It is equipped with multiple sensors that track biomarkers that are indicative of heart health. Waste fluid from the heart is then collected via a waste reservoir pump.

Deval Karia, the inventor of LifeBox, said: “India has an abysmal rate of 200 heart transplants annually, despite a staggering 50,000 people in need. Institutional factors aside, the inability to move hearts from a donor to the recipient is a major hindrance to bridging this gap.”

“The project has its genesis in a course taught by Prof. B. Gurumoorthy, Prof. A. Ghosal at CPDM, with a vision to explore drones for organ transportation. However, we soon realized that without active preservation techniques, drones will not do much to improve the rate of heart transplants in India. This led to a shift in focus: A portable system that can extend the out-of-body viable time of the heart,” he said.

From a competitive pool of 77 entries evaluated by the jury led by Srijan Pal Singh, the CEO and Co-Founder of Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam Centre; LifeBox narrowly edged out Safaa; an invention by Ananaya Singh and Vacha Patel, from the National Institute Of Design, Haryana; and Diariase; invented by Nikhil Das from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad to emerge as the national winner from India.

The national winner and both the national runners-up; along with the 84 national finalists from 28 countries and regions will now proceed to the international stages of the competition. A panel of Dyson engineers will create a Top 20 shortlist from these finalists.

Srijan Pal Singh – a member of the JDA jury panel; and also currently, the CEO and Co-Founder of Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam Centre; said: “The James Dyson Award 2021 once again stands tall as the hallmark for promoting young technologists to solve global challenges. This year the entries were highly focused on solving real-life challenges and making life better for humankind. The winning entries were places where the most innovative ideas met the most pressing challenge - ranging from improving the longevity of organs for transplantation to improving dialysis process and providing safer drinking water to masses.”

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