Electrically Instrumented Microphysiological Cardiac Ventricles

Abstract

The myocardium is composed of sheets of brick-shaped cardiomyocytes embedded within an anisotropically aligned extracellular matrix of proteins. This intricate structural organization underlies the electrical and mechanical functionality of the heart. In vitro cardiac microphysiological systems (MPS) aim to replicate these structure-function relationships; however, existing platforms often struggle to acquire high-resolution electrophysiological data from three-dimensional tissues due to geometric mismatch, poor mechanical integration, or insufficient spatiotemporal coverage. In this thesis, we present electrically instrumented engineered cardiac ventricles that integrate ultra-flexible mesh electronics with fiber-aligned scaffolds fabricated via Focused Rotary Jet Spinning. This platform enables stimulation and recording of cardiac electrophysiology across physiologically relevant spatial and temporal domains while preserving the native tissue architecture. By providing high-fidelity, multimodal access to volumetric tissue dynamics, these electrically instrumented cardiac MPS advance the frontier of heart-on-a-chip technology and hold promise for applications in drug screening, disease modeling, and personalized cardiac medicine.