Watch our collaborative webinar between Axol Bioscience, King’s College London, and Optics11 Life exploring how to bridge the gap between traditional 2D cardiomyocyte models and more predictive 3D functional assays.
Moving from 2D cardiomyocyte assays to three-dimensional engineered heart tissues can provide a more direct and physiologically relevant view of human cardiac function.
In this collaborative webinar, experts from Axol Bioscience, King’s College London, and Optics11 Life explore how human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes can be translated into functional 3D cardiac models using the Cuore platform.
The webinar begins with an overview from Jamie Bhagwan, of Axol’s atrial and ventricular cardiomyocytes, including their chamber-specific electrophysiology, contractile behavior, drug responses, and use in cardiac safety screening. The speakers also discuss strategies for improving cardiomyocyte maturity, including metabolic maturation media and 3D tissue culture.
Tom Berkers, Product Manager Cuore, Optics11 Life then introduces Cuore, a platform for measuring the contractile force generated by engineered heart tissues. Unlike assays that rely on indirect electrical or imaging-based measurements, Cuore directly quantifies force generation and contractile kinetics under physiologically relevant culture conditions. Researchers can follow tissue development over time, apply electrical stimulation, assess force-frequency responses, and measure parameters such as peak force, contraction time, relaxation time, and beating frequency.
Katarzyna Kmiotek-caller from King’s College London presents experimental results showing how engineered heart tissues created with Axol cardiomyocytes can support a range of cardiac research applications. These include acute drug-response studies, beta-adrenergic receptor characterization, hypertrophy modelling with endothelin-1, metabolic analysis, and targeted gene knockdown using AAV6 vectors.
The discussion also covers practical considerations such as cardiomyocyte purity, cryopreserved versus freshly differentiated cells, tissue formation success rates, multicellular cardiac models, and the prevention of necrotic cores.
Watch the webinar to learn how combining well-characterized human cardiomyocytes with direct 3D force measurements can support more predictive cardiac disease models, drug efficacy studies, and preclinical safety testing.
Date: 16 July 2026
Speakers
Jamie Bhagwan
Scientific Group Leader
Axol Bioscience
Tom Berkers
Product Manager Cuore
Optics11 Life
Katarzyna Kmiotek-caller
Research Associate
King’s College London
