3D artificial heart tissue

Commonly used acronym: Heart Patch

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Scope of the method

The Method relates to
  • Human health
The Method is situated in
  • Basic Research
  • Translational - Applied Research
Type of method
  • In vitro - Ex vivo
This method makes use of
  • Human derived cells / tissues / organs
Specify the type of cells/tissues/organs
3D heart

Description

Method keywords
  • heart model
  • 3D
  • Human induced Pluripotent Stem Cell
  • multi electrode array
  • plasma treatment
Scientific area keywords
  • cell biology
  • Cardiology
  • cardiac function
  • Cardiac electrophysiology
Method description

Current pre-clinical drug safety evaluation methods remain costly, inefficient, and unreliable, with 80–90% of compounds ultimately failing in human trials — often due to poor predictive models and safety concerns. Scaffold-based 3D organ models offer a more promising and physiologically relevant alternative in pre-clinical drug testing. We aim to advance this field by optimizing a 3D artificial heart tissue model seeded with key human cell types—cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. This model of heart patch surpasses current 3D cardiac constructs by incorporating bioinspired scaffolds and electro-mechanical stimulation to enhance cell differentiation and tissue maturity. By leveraging human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), our platform offers a more predictive and human-relevant system for cardiac drug safety and efficacy assessment, helping reduce reliance on in vivo animal testing.

Method status
  • Still in development

Contact person

Jolanda van Hengel

Organisations

Ghent University (UGent)
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Medical Cell Biology research group
Belgium
Flemish Region

Ghent University (UGent)
Research Unit Plasma Technology
Belgium
Flemish Region

Ghent University (UGent)
Cell Physiology and electrophysiology
Belgium
Flemish Region

Ghent University hospital (UZ Gent)
Experimental cardiac surgery-cardiocirculatory physiology
Belgium
Flemish Region

Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (IMEC)
Center for Microsystems Technology
Belgium
Flemish Region

University of Hasselt (UHasselt)
Lab of Cardiovascular Physiology
Belgium
Flemish Region