Biomedical and chemical engineering Professor Zhen Ma and his Syracuse University research team have developed an in vitro 3D tissue model of a human heart based on human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC). A model existing outside the body makes it possible to test drugs often prescribed during pregnancy and learn how they influence hiPSC growth, cardiac differentiation, and early heart formation in a fetus. Ma, in collaboration with a Syracuse University Falk College of Public Health professor and a professor from SUNY Upstate received funding for five years through an NIH Research Grant Award (RO1) to use the cardiac organoid model to improve traditional pharmaceutical screening. Read more here.