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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		The value of organoid systems
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:04
	Publish Date:		2016-06-01 00:00:00
	Description:		Have you heard of organoids? These are mini 3D models made to mimic the physiology of various organs, from the stomach to the brain. A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley recently created an organoid system for the heart using heart cells grown from human stem cells. Bioengineering professor Kevin Healy says their small cardiac chip can be used for drug screening and studies on early heart development. "We have of course, the cells derived from the heart. But we don't have blood vessels from the heart. We don't have other aspects like heart valve tissue." To show how different organs can affect each other, Healy suggests linking up the different organoids in the lab. "We start to couple different organs on a chip. Let's say the heart, liver, lung, GI tract; whatever. We see this integration of the different organs critical for understanding drugs affecting the heart, but metabolites of that drug that also may be affecting the liver and other tissues." The simulated heart is expected to help streamline the testing of cardiac drugs.
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