Bringing a new drug to market takes roughly a decade and requires expensive and arduous testing on humans and animals. But a new technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aims to cut that time by half and perhaps replace animal testing entirely. The device, roughly the size of a paperback, is nicknamed “the body on a chip” and is designed to show scientists how a drug affects individual organs and the body as whole. The device’s surface contains shallow receptacles in which scientists deposit pregrown, 3-D tissue structures from up to 12 human organs. With prior help from microscopic scaffoldings,...
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a "physiome on a chip" device that could halve the time taken to bring a new drug to market and eliminate animal testing entirely. The device, developed with a roughly a decade, multimillion-dollar grant from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, contains pre-grown, 3D tissue structures from up to 12 human organs, with pumps simulating blood flow. Drugs are then added to the device, enabling scientists to evaluate their effect on various parts of the body. The technology could be used to rapidly develop and release vaccines for pandemics.