Human Heart-on-a-Chip Could Improve Drug Testing

A new heart-on-a-chip system could allow researchers to test drug toxicity more effectively, according to a new publication in Scientific Reports. Development of new drugs is frequently slowed by high failure rates, and approximately 33 percent of drugs fail due to heart toxicity. Testing drugs in this new in vitro heart-on-a-chip, made with human cells and designed to mimic the functions of the heart, will be more accurate than animal models in revealing which drugs might be toxic to humans.