Next-generation drug testing on chips
The "Body-on-a-chip" device is a novel in vitro human model without the use of people or animals for drug discovery. This chip allows recapitulating the side effect of anti-cancer drug on human heart cells before expensive clinical trials. Credit: Kyoto University iCeMS Researchers at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan have designed a small 'body-on-a-chip' device that can test the side effects of drugs s on human cells. The device solves some issues with current, similar microfluidic devices and offers promise for the next generation of pre-clinical drug tests. The Integrated Heart/Cancer on a Chip (iHCC) was used to test the toxicity of the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin on heart cells. The researchers, led by iCeMS's Ken-ichiro Kamei, found that, while the drug itself was not toxic to heart cells, a metabolite of the drug resulting from its interaction with cancer cells was. The device is sm...