The drug, the test and the chip

An innovative approach for drugs development could make animal testing obsolete

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How can we better predict how new medications act in the human body? This was the main question when we started our FET Open project Body on a Chip (BoC) in 2012. Too many new and promising drugs fail in very late stages of the development process because they are not efficient or produce unwanted – sometimes even dangerous – side effects. The Swiss company InSphero AG developed sand-grain-sized 3D microtissues which mimic human organs like the liver, the pancreas or tumours to solve this problem.

 

Our BoC project took the technology a step further. We created a polymer microfluidic chip which connects different 3D micro-organs and creates an abstract version of a human body, on a chip. This is how we can now test drugs on organ networks, instead of single organs, to better understand how they affect the human body as a whole. It means that animal testing in the future might become obsolete – or at least substantially reduced. Our work was also internationally recognised by Global 3Rs Awards program and NC3R‘s.

 

Read more on ec.europa.eu

 

Cover image: via flickr.com