Drug testing could become faster and safer because of a new device, which could replace animal testing. The device consists of a small piece of cardiac muscle, which is inside the silicon body of the device.

“Ultimately, these chips could replace the use of animals to screen drugs for safety and efficacy. Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the cost and time of bringing a new drug to market”, said lead researcher and Berkeley bioengineering professor Kevin Healy.

Using animals for testing human heart medication is not just related to ethics. There are many problems associated with this, for example, if a drug has been created to treat humans, its effect will be different on a species, which is biologically different from human beings.

Healy said that such things lead to wasteful and costly experiments, which do not tell properly about the toxicity of a drug in humans. He added that about $5 billion on average are needed to be spent to develop a drug and 60% of this amount comes from upfront costs in the research and development phase. According to him, the cost and time needed to develop a drug could be reduced by using a well-designed model of a human organ.

The tissue started beating on its own at a rate of 55 to 80 beats per minute, when it was put on the chip. Researchers also tested the impacts of popular cardiovascular drugs on the heart tissue. It was found by them that the drugs performed according to the expectations. For instance, a medication, which is used to treat slow heart rate, was able to cause the tissue to beat at 124 beats per minute.