Finding drugs for the faint of heart

Harvard University researchers have developed an organ on a chip that recapitulates genetic, morphological and functional markers of failing myocardium.¹ The system could help identify therapeutic candidates that slow or reverse heart failure with better reliability than current in vitro culture systems.

Traditional in vitro models of heart failure involve exposing cultured cardiomyocytes to chemical or mechanical stimuli that induce pathological gene expression, hypertrophy and remodeling.^2-4...