BWP platform tracks 3D heart tissue without microscopes

UNSW and Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute researchers have built a wireless BWP sensor for cardiac organoids.

BWP stands for biomechanical-well-plate, and the platform monitors 3D heart tissues in real time.

Nature Sensors published the work, which targets faster drug testing, better disease modelling and fewer animal experiments.

Cardiac organoids are 3D clusters of human heart cells grown in a laboratory.

Drug teams use 3D cardiac organoids to test the safety and efficacy of new medicines before clinical trials.

Although 3D cardiac organoids do not copy a full human heart, they mimic key behaviours.

In drug studies, 3D cardiac organoids show how heart muscle contracts after researchers add a medicine.

Many 3D cardiac organoid tests use optical imaging, which means filming the tissues under microscopes.

Microscope footage can slow 3D screening, limit scale and disturb the fragile conditions these tissues need.

Some 3D tissue methods also attach or constrain the sample during a test.

Those 3D methods can change how a cardiac organoid behaves when researchers assess a drug.

Scientia Associate Professor Hoang-Phuong Phan, the corresponding author from UNSW, said the aim is “to develop a new tool” for human organoids and overcome limits in animal models.

How the BWP sensor works

Unlike optical imaging, BWP listens to the tiny ripples made by beating cardiac organoids.

When a cardiac organoid contracts in liquid, BWP detects tiny pressure changes around the tissue.

UNSW compares the process to ripples spreading after a stone drops into water.

Inside BWP, liquid-surface vibrations make the surrounding air compress and expand.

A sensor under the BWP well captures those pressure variations and converts them into electrical signals.

Nature Sensors links the idea to the fish lateral line, a row of tiny pressure sensors along a fish’s body.

In fish, the lateral line helps detect objects, predators, prey and other fish in nearby water.

For BWP, that approach gives researchers a continuous readout of tissue biomechanics.

Because BWP does not touch 3D tissue, it avoids microscopes, optical filming and physical attachments.

Victor Chang researchers can use BWP to watch how a cardiac organoid responds when a drug is introduced.

UNSW and Victor Chang researchers can also track how that response changes over time.

Associate Professor Adam Hill from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute is working on scalable cardiac safety sensors.

BWP sensors need reproducible, high-throughput measurements of organoid contraction for larger drug-testing programmes.

Dr Jordan Thorp, a Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute co-author, said, “We know that a very large percentage of drugs (about 90%) in development that have been tested on animals then fail in clinical trials. By using human organoids we can bypass that step and go straight to checking if the drugs are suitable for people, saving significant time and money.”

NSW Non-animal Technologies Network partially funded the research.

Human cardiac organoids give UNSW and Victor Chang teams a more human-relevant option than animal models.

BWP remains at an early stage, with scaling, manufacturing consistency and low-cost production still to solve.

Current BWP prototypes can measure multiple samples.

UNSW and Victor Chang researchers plan larger BWP formats and better sensitivity for smaller cardiac organoids.

Last updated: 29 June 2026, 11:45 am