VistaGen, Duke University deal

VistaGen partnered with the university to explore the development of engineered, stem-cell derived cardiac tissue combining VistagGen's human stem cell-derived heart cells with the university's technology relating to cardiac electrophysiology and tissue engineering. VistaGen said the deal will allow it to use micro-patterned cardiac tissue to "significantly expand" the approaches in its Drug Rescue Program to quantify drug effects on functional human cardiac tissue. According to the company, cardiomyocytes in micro-patterned cardiac tissue can be organized in an alignment similar to that of cardiomyocytes in normal heart tissue. VistaGen said the "organization results in a better ability to monitor drugs that interfere with the velocity of transmitting the cardiac electrical pulse across the tissue, which in turn improves the capacity to directly measure drug effects on the force of cardiac contraction." Details were not disclosed. ...