In 1967, Professor Christiaan Barnard undertook the world’s first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital of UCT. This success paved the way for heart transplants to become a relatively common and successful surgical procedure for many patients throughout the world. Since the first heart transplant there have been enormous advances in promoting cardiovascular health. Some of these are preventative – no smoking, more exercise – but there has also been much progress in treating diseased hearts. These advances are dependent on bringing a number of approaches together – engineering, biomaterials, cell and regenerative therapies and computer modelling – to address challenges associated with cardiovascular therapies. This interdisciplinary research undertaken at the Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Lab is featured in an article "Repairing broken hearts" in the Cape Times on 22 November 2013 [web, pdf].