1. Project

Parallelisable microfluidic Heart-on-a-chip systems with integrated sensing capability to monitor maturation and functionality of cardiac microtissues

Cardiac tissue models are of especial interest as predictive in vitro models for preclinical screening of drugs and have the potential to reduce late stage drug attrition greatly. Cardiotoxicity remains a major cause of failure in preclinical and clinical development, with high rates of post-approval withdrawal of medicines. In this project, we will develop and apply a novel Organ-on-a-chip system, which integrates hiPSC derived cardiac tissues with biomaterials with tunable mechanical properties in an existing microfluidic heart-on-a-chip system. The system will be further developed, combined with non-invasive readout technologies and then employed to study maturation and mechanical properties of cardiac tissues.