A beating Heart-on-Chip for pre-clinical early detection of drugs cardiac safety

Drug development is a time-consuming and expensive process involving, among other things, testing for potential unanticipated side effects. Many safety-related drug withdrawals are due to cardiotoxicity. Given the potentially catastrophic consequences of cardiac side effects, evaluating cardiac safety is critical yet remains a major hurdle in drug development. As the pharmaceutical industry seeks alternatives to animal testing, the Italian SME BiomimX has a powerful solution. Integrating 3D cell culture and mechanical stimulation, the company has developed a beating heart on a chip able to respond to drugs much as a human heart would do for rapid toxicity screening very early in the drug pipeline. The EU-funded uHeart project is laying the groundwork to make it commercially available.