In a recent publication, Professor Milica Radisic and her colleagues reported important technological advances towards the development of scalable and high-data-content heart-on-chip devices, which have the potential to revolutionize drug discovery and disease modelling.
Organ-on-chip technologies, which are human microtissue models hosted on plastic microfluidic devices, represent a promising alternative approach to animal testing that could accelerate the pace and increase the productivity of drug development pipelines. For this to become a reality, researchers need to be able to comprehensively profile a multitude of the microtissue’s functions and behaviours to appropriately benchmark disease phenotypes or the effects of new drug candidates.
Dr. Qinghua Wu, a postdoctoral fellow in the Radisic lab, led the development of the first heart-on-chip platform with integrated hardware to measure key physiological properties of human heart muscle. This hardware includes: soft 3D microelectrodes that non-invasively measure electrophysiological signals at high resolution; elastic microwires made from thermoplastic elastomers and quantum dots that record tissue contraction in real time; and carbon electrodes to induce paced tissue contractions (‘beating’). In addition, to accelerate the speed and volume of chip fabrication, microelectrodes and microwire were 3D printed directly into the chips.
The newly reported heart-on-chip platform shows how Prof. Radisic and her colleagues are addressing two major unmet needs—scalability and high-throughput functional readouts—for the translation and widespread adoption of all organ-on-chip technologies for disease research and drug discovery.
Wu Q, Zhang P, O’Leary G, Zhao Y, Xu Y, Rafatian N, Okhovatian S, Landau S, Valiante TA, Travas-Sejdic J, Radisic M. Flexible 3D printed microwires and 3D microelectrodes for heart-on-a-chip engineering. Biofabrication. 2023 Jun 22. doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/acd8f4.
University of Toronto researchers have created a unique heart-on-a-chip model that is helping untangle the causes of COVID-19-induced heart inflammation and uncover strategies to reduce its impact.
The article showcases a method for the automated and scalable fabrication of multiwell plate-based heart-on-a-chip devices. The sensing and structural components of the device are created by 3D printing of a thermoplastic elastomers with quantum dots, whereas the multiwell structures with integrated electrodes are built through hot embossing of polysterene.
A team including researchers across the University of Toronto has developed a heart-on-a-chip device to study the effects of a genetic mutation that causes dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that impairs blood flow throughout the body.