New Publication: Review on Realistic Heart Models out now

The EMAPS-Cardio team recently published a review article about realistic heart models for disease modelling and cardiotoxicity.

In the articles, the authors assess the current state of heart models, focusing on the maturation of cardiomyocytes differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CM) on heart-on-chip platforms, in silico models and in vitro models. Assessing this is important for many reasons. Firstly, these cells offer valuable and superior alternatives to animal models. Secondly, they are also more pragmatic than human primary cardiomyocytes, which are complex to handle ethically and legally. Thirdly, as the chances of cardiovascular disease in humans increase with higher age, it is necessary to study mature heart cells. Thus, improving the quality and maturation of hiPSC-CMs as an adequate model for an adult human heart is of utmost importance for further research and drug development. This research will have a wide impact as it might improve drug testing and the development of regenerative therapies for cardiovascular diseases.

Led by Kornél Kistamás from project partner BioTalentum Ltd., the team of 14 authors brings together experts on the various aspects of disease modelling and cardiotoxicity research. The publication demonstrates the progress that the international and diverse project team has achieved so far. The team includes researchers Raminta Vaiciuleviciute, Eiva Bernotiene and Aidas Alaburda from IMC in Lithuania, Paula Subías-Beltrán and Luis Marte from EURECAT in Spain, Dina N. Arvanitis, Melinda Zana and András Dinnyés from BioTalentum Ltd., Christian Bergaud from CNRS as well as Pedro Costa from Biofabics Lda.

The article was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences and is available worldwide under an open access license. Read it here.