Human Heart-on-a-Chip for Drug Screening and Personalized Medicine

Drug discovery and development still rely on the use of animal models, despite the fact that animals have been proven to be poor representatives of human biology and physiology. Bioengineers in California have recently developed a system that allows human heart cells, obtained from human induced pluripotent stem cells, to grow and function in a microphysiological system that can mimic human physiological conditions. The new system could potentially be applied for drug development as well as pave the way toward personalizing treatments.