Introduction
Organ-on-a-Chip is a potential, multidisciplinary method for in-vitro modeling of disease, drug screening, and precision medicine that simulates in-vitro physiology and pathology.
Organ-on-a-chip technology may be integrated organically into the drug development pipeline for preclinical screening, testing, and translating novel medicines from early drug discovery to bridging the gap between animal and human subject research.
In the future, it will be unprecedented to promote its biomedical applications through further development of customized organ-on-a-chip and ongoing integration of novel engineering tools (i.e. automation handling, 3D printing, in situ multi-Sensor systems) and biological concepts (e.g. patient-induced pluripotent stem cells and organoids).
How to culture vascularized & immunocompetent 3D models in a standard Multiwell
Abstract
The authors state that “The pharmaceutical industry has been desperately searching for efficient drug discovery methods. Organ-on-a-Chip, a cutting-edge technology that can emulate the physiological environment and functionality of human organs on a chip for disease modeling and drug testing, shows great potential for revolutionizing the drug development pipeline.
However, successful translation of this novel engineering platform into routine pharmacological and medical scenarios remains to be realized. In this review, we discuss how the Organ-on-a-Chip technology can have critical roles in different preclinical stages of drug development and highlight the current challenges in translation and commercialization of this technology for the pharmacological and medical end-users.
Moreover, this review sheds light on the future developmental trends and need for a next-generation Organ-on-a-Chip platform to bridge the gap between animal studies and clinical trials for the pharmaceutical industry.”.
References
Ma C, Peng Y, Li H, Chen W. Organ-on-a-Chip: A New Paradigm for Drug Development. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2021 Feb;42(2):119-133. doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2020.11.009. Epub 2020 Dec 16. PMID: 33341248; PMCID: PMC7990030.
