Scientists have created a functional ‘beating’ human heart muscle from stem cells, a significant step forward in cardiac disease research. Researchers at The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia developed models of human heart tissue in the laboratory so they can study cardiac biology and diseases ‘in a dish’. The patented technology enables us to now perform experiments on human heart tissue in the lab. This provides scientists with viable, functioning human heart muscle to work on, to model disease, screen new drugs and investigate heart repair.
The researcher said that in the laboratory we used dry ice to kill part of the tissue while leaving the surrounding muscle healthy and viable. They found those tissues fully recovered because they were immature and the cells could regenerate – in contrast to what happens normally in the adult heart where you get a ‘dead’ patch. He also…
