Growing resilient heart cells for therapy and drug discovery

Recent technology has made it possible to transform human skin cells into stem cells under laboratory conditions and transform the stem cells into heart muscle cells. This process is only a few years old, and little is currently known about the resulting heart cells. For example, researchers do not know how much force and electrical activity the artificially-developed heart cells have when compared to regular heart cells. This makes it difficult to use the cells for research.

University of Minnesota Integrative Biology/Physiology
Matthew Wheelwright; Joseph M. Metzger
2015-2016