US bioengineers create heart-on-a-chip
Bioengineers at the University of California Berkeley have created an organ-on-a-chip that they claim could be used to radically reduce the expense of testing new heart drugs.
According to the authors of a study that appears in the journal Scientific Reports the device consists of a network of pulsating cardiac muscle cells housed in an inch-long silicone device that effectively works as a model heart.
Research leader Prof Kevin Healy claimed that it could ultimately help slash the cost of drug development.
’It takes about $5bn on average to develop a drug and 60 per cent of that figure comes from upfront costs in the research and development phase,’ Prof Healy said in a statement. ‘Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the cost and time of bringing a new drug to market.’
The researchers designed the device so that its 3D structure would be comparable to the geometry and spacing of connective tissue fibre in a human heart.
Differentiated human heart cells were then put into a loading area, and the system’s confined geometry helped align the cells in multiple layers and in a single direction.
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