# Clinical Trials in a Dish- hiPSC Cardiomyocyte HTS Electrophysiology System for Detecting Drug Induced Fatal Cardiac Arrhythmias

> **NIH NIH SB1** · STEMBIOSYS, INC. · 2022 · $300,000

## Abstract

Abstract
The goal of this project is to commercialize a novel high throughput cardiotoxicity screening assay
based on using human cardiomyocytes. Human cardiomyocytes are obtained from commercial
sources of stem cell derived cardiomyocytes, so called hiPSC-CMs. The commercial products to be
released by the end of this phase IIb proposal include 1. proprietary extracellular matrix coated cell
culture plates (already commercially available - marketed as CELLvo™ Matrix Plus), 2. Cardiotoxicity
screening instrument (CARTOX), 3. Optical electrophysiology analysis software to enable HTS data
analysis, and 4. Chamber-specific stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. The FDA and other
stakeholders in drug discovery and safety screening are adopting the use of hiPSC-CMs for pre-
clinical testing and even for development of clinical trial in a dish approaches. Widespread adoption
has been hampered because of limitations surrounding the maturation state of stem cell derived heart
muscle and lack of HTS systems for measuring cardiac action potentials. The CARTOX
instrumentation and StemBioSys proprietary Matrix Plus products solve these problems and provide
further evidence for the adoption of human cell based cardiac assays to replace some animal focused
safety screening approaches. The proposed work addresses a large unmet need, both scientifically
and commercially.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10552776
- **Project number:** 2SB1ES027703-04
- **Recipient organization:** STEMBIOSYS, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Travis Jackson Block
- **Activity code:** SB1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $300,000
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10552776

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10552776, Clinical Trials in a Dish- hiPSC Cardiomyocyte HTS Electrophysiology System for Detecting Drug Induced Fatal Cardiac Arrhythmias (2SB1ES027703-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10552776. Licensed CC0.

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