For the first time, bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a cardiac system that models how the human heart responds to drugs. Study leader Kevin Healy says that the inch-long cardiac chip, derived from adult stem cells, is a major step forward in developing a faster and more accurate drug-screening tool.

"I think the major use for this will be preclinical trials for drug screening, and how you would screen different drugs, and ultimately replace animal experiments, which many would argue are inefficient, sort of broken. They’re not very good at predicting human clinical response to certain drugs."

Healy says that the cardiac chip could also significantly improve the cost and time it takes to develop a drug.

"We would drastically reduce the cost of drug discovery, and the duration. Saving the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare industry significant cost savings when treating patients."