The heart is a complex organ composed of a diverse population of cardiac cells, primarily comprising cardiomyocytes, cardiac fibroblasts, and vascular endothelial cells. The highly coordinated activity of these cells is critical for healthy cardiovascular function. As the functional core of the heart, they are the primary focus for modelling intrinsic genetic disorders, such as cardiomyopathies, studying the cellular damage caused by ischemic injury, and screening for drug-induced cardiotoxicity, which is a major cause of late-stage drug attrition.

Historically, efforts to model cardiovascular biology and screen for cardiotoxic compounds have relied heavily on animal models. However, non-human models exhibit physiological differences in baseline heart rate, repolarisation currents, and ion channel expression, frequently failing to reliably predict human-specific cardiac responses. Transitioning to in vitro human models using primary cells has been equally challenging due to severe limitations, as scientists typically source them from surgical discards or organ donors whose hearts are deemed non-transplantable.

Human iPSC-derived cardiac cells provide an in vitro, physiologically relevant model to overcome these limitations, constituting a reliable source of human cells for early-stage cardiotoxicity assessment and modelling cardiovascular disease.