$1.8M in Funding Given to 3D Print ‘Organ-on-a-Chip’ to Eliminate Animal Testing

In pharmaceuticals, the development of new treatments involves a long series of tests and strict government scrutiny. The arduous journey from theory to drug approval is fraught with challenges. One of the biggest is undoubtedly the current testing methods that experiment on animals before human trials are initiated. In addition to being subject to criticism over the ethics involved, there is a discrepancy in testing drugs on such different living beings. Even so, the most recent data indicate that every year more than 110 million animals are sacrificed in laboratories in the United States alone.

But what can be done? It turns out that a $1.8 million grant has recently been announced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project that will seek to develop solutions to try to put an end to this type of testing. The team brings together experts from multiple institutions, including Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Harvard Medical School, and will be led by Jeff Schultz, co-founder of 3D printed microfluidics company Phase Inc.

Jeff Schultz holding a 3D printed organ-on-a-chip (photo credits: Alex Parrish/Virginia Tech).

How Has the ‘Organ-on-a-Chip’ Come About?

The reality is that all team members have already been working together for some years in this line of research. From now on, Rafael Davalos, Seemantini Nadkarni, Amrinder Nain and Jeff Schultz will combine their expertise with Phase Inc.’s 3D printing technique to overcome the remaining challenges. This innovative approach leverages organ-on-a-chip technology, where small devices made of microfluidics simulate the functions of human organs. By testing drugs on these cell-based platforms, researchers can obtain more accurate and reliable data on how drugs will work in the human body.