Cardiovascular diseases account for 45 % of deaths in Europe and are estimated to cost the EU economy € 210 billion a year. D ... espite the apparent need, the number of cardiovascular drugs in the research pipeline has declined. The EU-funded research project EMAPS-Cardio addresses these issues by aiming to develop organotypic heart cell cultures to accelerate the development of effective cardiovascular drugs. EMAPS-Cardio strives to produce a platform for growth and maturation of cardiac microtissues. These realistic heart-on-a-chip models can help advance the understanding of several prevalent heart diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes, while striving to be sufficiently accurate to detect drug potency in both healthy and diseased tissues. read more