French professor Alain Carpentier (center) is shown operating.

A fully implantable artificial heart intended to overcome the worldwide shortage of transplant donors will be ready for clinical trial by 2011, according to heart transplant specialist Alain Carpentier.

As head of the European research team behind the project, Carpentier said the prosthetic heart is ready to be manufactured and should be ready for human use "within two and half years."

Biomedical firm Carmat expects to produce the heart at a site near Paris. Carmat is a European start-up funded by EADS, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, venture capital firm Truffle, and Carpentier. He developed his prototype in association with a team of aerospace engineers. The prototype is shaped like a real heart, has the same blood flow rhythms, and uses the same technology as prosthetic heart valves developed by Carpentier. It is made from chemically treated animal tissues. These "biomaterials" are to avoid rejection by the patient's immune system or blood clotting, a recurrent problem with existing artificial hearts.

The artificial heart has been successfully tested by digital simulation and on animals. It is intended to serve as an alternative to ventricular assistance devices, thumb-sized devices that must be recharged using an external battery. Rival prototypes are being developed in the United States, Japan, and South Korea.