Organ-on-a-chip devices advance to market

Abstract

To curb the high cost of drug development, there is an urgent need to develop more predictive tissue models using human cells to determine drug efficacy and safety in advance of clinical testing. Recent insights gained through fundamental biological studies have validated the importance of dynamic cell environments and cellular communication to the expression of high fidelity organ function. Building on this knowledge, emerging organ-on-a-chip technology is poised to fill the gaps in drug screening by offering predictive human tissue models with methods of sophisticated tissue assembly. Organ-on-a-chip start-ups have begun to spawn from academic research to fill this commercial space and are attracting investment to transform the drug discovery industry. This review traces the history, examines the scientific foundation and envisages the prospect of these renowned organ-on-a-chip technologies. It serves as a guide for new members of this dynamic field to navigate the existing scientific and market space.

Hydrophobic Patterning‐Based 3D Microfluidic Cell Culture Assay

“…These structural strategies of cell/ECM patterning do not allow for a large enough effective area of cell-cell/ECM and cell-growth factor/chemokine interactions to supply cells with a sufficient amount of essential nutrients. In most micro-post-based platforms, over 50% of the interface area between the cell channel and ECM channel is blocked by artificial materials, either polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or hard plastics 9,15–26 ; the total area of pores on a transwell membrane, which is the effective interaction area, is ~ 5% of the total cell culture area 12,22,27,28 . Furthermore, the size of these structures is typically smaller than the industrial standard for injection molding; the difficulty of manufacturing these structures at scale thus prevents the widespread transition in industry from non-physiological 2D substrata-based assays to in vivo -like 3D surrogate models 29,30 .…”

Microfluidic Platforms toward Rational Material Fabrication for Biomedical Applications

“…In a pioneering work in 2010, Donald Ingber successfully recapitulated organ‐level lung functions in vitro on a microfluidic chip . Inspired by this landmark study, organs‐on‐chips as a new route for reverse engineering of human pathophysiology have attracted enormous attentions in both scientific and industrial fields . Different types of modular tissues/organs with simulated functions to native ones, including microvessels, cutaneous wound, intestine, kidney, liver, blood‐brain barrier, and even cancer, have been built for pathophysiologic investigations and rapid screening of drugs/therapeutic interventions in vitro.…”

Fitting tissue chips and microphysiological systems into the grand scheme of medicine, biology, pharmacology, and toxicology

“…The articles in this issue do not provide any in-depth examination of the first principal component, MPS hardware development, which is relatively stable and now being commercialized, 44 but there are several notable advances reported since 2014. Hughes et al…”

“…One way that the operational issues will be addressed is through the commercialization of MPS technologies. Zhang and Radisic 44 discuss the emergence of about 20 companies in this sector, and undoubtedly the customer service, engineering, and marketing departments of each of these companies, no matter how small, will quickly realize what the customer needs and would like to have. Similarly, it is heartening to see TCs programs springing up within pharmaceutical companies and at the larger biotechnology companies, as well as the emergence of many small start-ups and contract research organizations, based on the intellectual property that is being developed in this arena.…”