Imperial researchers are collaborating with artists and designers on a public engagement project called The Heart and Lung Repair Shop.

This July, medical researchers from the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College London, artists and designers are collaborating on a science engagement project called The Heart and Lung Repair Shop, funded by the Wellcome Trust. The shop is located in an empty retail unit in King’s Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith, and is aimed at bringing science to the local community.

Heart and Lung Machine

The design has been inspired by a mechanical repair shop and features a workshop bench where scientists will do mini experiments and dissections. The main installation is a heart and lung machine, which the audience will be able to pump and inflate themselves.

The products in the shop are an impression of what might be sold if a heart and lung repair shop really did exist, for example, cans of fresh air, bottles of oxygenated blood and preserved stem cells. Rather than being for sale, the items’ labels will provide snippets of information to incite conversations between the scientists and the audience.

“It’s about bringing together scientists and the community and enabling them to have conversations, share perspectives and connect,” says Ellen Dowell, Public Engagement Officer from the NHLI. “The scientists will be really interested to hear what the audience think about their research and hopefully the audience will want to hear about the medical research happening at nearby hospitals such as Charing Cross, Hammersmith, St Mary’s Paddington and Royal Brompton.”

The shop will be open from the 7 – 20  July, and incorporates a variety of features to engage people of all ages. It will showcase bioengineered organs, broken hearts that can heal themselves and ways to stop cells from ageing.

There will be the opportunity to meet and speak with NHLI scientists and take part in specially developed demonstrations, workshops and talks.

There will also be a lung capacity competition and a ‘future challenges’ ballot where visitors can vote on their favourite area of potential future research, from developing healthy cigarettes to building a whole bioengineered heart.

The Heart and Lung Repair Shop is free for all to attend and will be open 11.00 - 17.00 every day from 7-20 July 2014. Some workshops and talks are ticketed.

Find out more information, tickets and programmes.