Scientists unveil new 'heart-on-a-chip'
The heart is a near-universal symbol of love and one of the most vital organs in the body. Now, to better understand the inner workings of the heart, scientists have recreated the organ's biology in a device the size of a credit card. The new " heart -on -a-chip " device, developed by a team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), mimics the interactions of cells within a human heart . The researchers say the Technology could be used to study heart disease , which is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Traditional animal experiments — which typically use lab rats and monkeys, among other animals — don't perfectly capture how a disease will progress or a drug will behave in the human body. Because of this, researchers are working to develop more accurate ways of mimicking the complexity and intricacy of human organs in the lab. This accuracy is especially important for drug development, as 90% of candidate drugs currently fail cl...