Heart cells display ‘nano sense’ on new lab chip

Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering faculty Andre Levchenko and Les Tung along with colleagues in Korea have found that heart cell and tissue properties can be controlled by varying the nano-scale topography of the scaffolds supporting the cells, a surprising indication that heart cells possess a ‘nano-sense’ capable of responding to minute differences in the natural extracellular matrix in the heart. The researchers developed a chip that mimics the natural scaffolds, resulting in lab-grown heart tissue that more closely resembles the real thing.