Innovative Technology Identifies Heart Toxicity Without Using Animals

University of Toronto engineers developed laboratory-grown heart tissues that mimic actual human heart tissues. TARA Biosystems now offers the innovative technology known as Biowire, to test heart toxicity for pharmaceutical companies. Engineers microfabricated the Biowire platform by creating innovative scaffolds for the cells to grow on, seeding the cells, and using electrical currents to stimulate the heartbeat, in order to train the cells to behave as they would in a human. This existing human biology-based technology seeks to identify negative human effects early in development and eliminate animal testing for heart toxicity.