Robotic 'hives' grow human tissue for 3 million drug tests a year, cutting need for lab mice

Robotic 'hives' grow human tissue for 3 million drug tests a year, cutting need for lab mice

A Bay Area startup is taking a shot at ending animal testing, one of medicine's most persistent humanitarian and logistical problems. Drugs that appear promising in mice can fall apart once they reach humans, not to mention the suffering the animals endure. Its solution is a fleet of robotic "hives" that grow human tissue and run millions of experiments designed to catch failures long before people enter costly clinical trials. Here's what to kn…