--- title: Spinach Leaf Heart: Researchers Turn Vegetable Into Tissue description: A team of scientists has transformed spinach leaves into beating heart tissue, and it may be a way to solve the lack of organ donors. canonical: https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-27T14:26:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:02:52.132Z article:section: Science og:title: Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue og:description: “All of a sudden you see cells moving.” og:url: https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367efe49c0b467ce/6988bff686f68e16a46e3fe3/spinach-heart-tissue.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Spinach heart tissue og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue twitter:description: “All of a sudden you see cells moving.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367efe49c0b467ce/6988bff686f68e16a46e3fe3/spinach-heart-tissue.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Mar 27, 2017 2:26 PM UTC  Scientists from the Massachusetts’s Worcester Polytechnic Institute are working on a way to convert spinach leaves into human heart tissue as a way to tackle the lack of donor organs. Scientists from the Massachusetts’s Worcester Polytechnic Institute are working on a way to convert spinach leaves into human heart tissue as a way to tackle the lack of donor organs.WPI  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Mar 27, 2017 2:26 PM UTC A team of scientists [has transformed spinach leaves into beating human heart tissue](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/) after first coming up with the idea during their lunch. The researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts wanted to engineer a solution for widespread organ donor shortage. Knowing it’s difficult to reproduce veins, the group decided to use the system already in place on a spinach leaf by replacing spinach cells with human heart cells, the Washington _Post_ [reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/?utm%5Fterm=.9a7fd2e030b6). “To be able to just take something as simple as a spinach leaf, which is an abundant plant, and actually turn that into a tissue that has the potential for blood to flow through it, is really very very exciting,” said researcher Glenn Gaudette, the head of the WPI lab, in a video about the work. The team published its initial findings in the journal [_Biomaterials_](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961217300856)_._ Once engineers [used soap](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/) to leave only the structural leaf supports, the report states, they replaced the spinach with the heart tissue that “colonized the inner surfaces of the plant vasculature.” After five days, the cells began to beat. “It was definitely a double take,” bioengineer Joshua Gershlak [told the ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/)[_Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/)_._ “All of a sudden you see cells moving.” The researchers injected the leaves with little beads the size of red blood cells to confirm that the spinach veins could transport materials. Gershlak told the _Post_ the researchers envision converting spinach to heart cells and grafting it onto damaged heart tissue in the future. Watch the researchers discuss their work in the video above. \[[_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/"},"headline":"Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue","datePublished":"2017-03-27T14:26:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:02:52.132Z","description":"“All of a sudden you see cells moving.\"","url":"https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/","keywords":["Research","Science topic","health","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367efe49c0b467ce/6988bff686f68e16a46e3fe3/spinach-heart-tissue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367efe49c0b467ce/6988bff686f68e16a46e3fe3/spinach-heart-tissue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Spinach heart tissue","caption":"Spinach heart tissue","creditText":"WPI","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/","name":"Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue"}}]}] ```