A Microdevice For Simultaneous Measurement of Cardiac Contraction and Electrophysiology

The use of human-induced pluripotent stem cell - derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) as vehicles for disease testing and therapy discovery is currently limited by the inability to properly measure the complex activities of the cardiac cells. This paper reports a carbon-based biosensing platform that enables simultaneous and comprehensive measurement of contractility, beating rate, beating rhythm, and field potential in a monolayer of iPSC-CMs. The device consists of a flexible thin-film cantilever embedded with a carbon black-PDMS (CB-PDMS) strain sensor for contraction measurement and carbon nanotube (CNT) electrodes for electrical field potential detection. The device arrays have been utilized to perform comprehensive measurement of cell functional properties in responses to different concentrations of cardiac drugs.