Source: Xinhua New Media
Tel Aviv University has signed a partnership agreement with German pharmaceutical company Bayer to test the new drug on the university’s 3D-printed human heart tissue, with future plans to test the drug’s efficacy and toxicity on the entire 3D-printed heart, the university said in a statement On June 28.

A researcher shows a 3D heart at Tel Aviv University on April 15, 2019.
(Xinhua/Gini Photo Agency)
Tel Aviv University researchers 3D printed the world’s first complete “heart” with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and atria last April, an innovative technology that also has great potential in the medical field of drug screening, the statement said.
Drug candidates go through multiple screening stages before being marketed, first tested on human tissue grown in a laboratory and then on laboratory animals before being approved for use in human clinical trials.
Testing candidate drugs using 3D-printed human tissue could make the drug screening process faster, cheaper and more efficient, the statement said.
The 3D-printed tissue is closer to real heart tissue, Said Professor Michael D ‘Urville, director of the University’s Tal D ‘Urville Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, in a statement.
The lab will also design an entire human heart with all the different ventricles, valves, arteries and veins for better drug screening, DE Vere said.