Scientists Create First “Disease in a Dish Model” of Rare Heart Condition
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cadiomyopathy is a rare, inherited, and currently untreatable condition, which is a common cause of sudden death in adolescents. Researchers led by Daniel Judge and Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen generated cardiomyocytes from patients suffering from this condition; however, at first, they were unable to observe the cellular-level features of the disease in these immature cells. They developed, as reported in Nature, a method to trigger signs of the adult disease by activating the cells’ metabolism, producing a “disease in a dish.”