The day when most new drugs will be developed and tested directly using human tissues is right around the corner

Most people know what microelectronics are: those small but mighty components powering our phones, TVs, and other electronic devices.

Microfluidics is a related miniaturization technology but applied to fluids instead of electricity. Often hidden from view, microfluidics underlies a variety of devices that are essential to our lives, from home pregnancy tests to inkjet printers to glucometers for the monitoring of diabetes.

In recent years a class of microfluidic devices, called organs-on-chips, have even been used to mimic the natural environments of organs, opening the door to experiments that would otherwise not be feasible

The following submission statement was provided by /u/filosoful:

The day when most new drugs will be developed and tested directly using human tissues is right around the corner

Most people know what microelectronics are: those small but mighty components powering our phones, TVs, and other electronic devices.

Microfluidics is a related miniaturization technology but applied to fluids instead of electricity. Often hidden from view, microfluidics underlies a variety of devices that are essential to our lives, from home pregnancy tests to inkjet printers to glucometers for the monitoring of diabetes.

In recent years a class of microfluidic devices, called organs-on-chips, have even been used to mimic the natural environments of organs, opening the door to experiments that would otherwise not be feasible

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/z9th00/the_organonachip_revolution_is_here/iyig6hp/

Sounds great and all but I feel we’re only taking a partial step with these. The purpose is to apply more context to the drugs but is also only making them slightly more complex as systems. Nothing about immune or other stromal function not to mention the lack of ECM and hormonal/cytokine signaling.

In general I don’t see how this is much better than doing HTP Drug screening in 2D

How is anyone supposed to play an organ that small? How tiny are the keys? I can't even see 'em! /s

I remember seeing this on Ted talks years ago. The main idea is that it's modular. And you can link chips to simulate any system. Then test drugs on them.

My field of study is in tissue engineering coupled with microfluidics.

A lot of the work being done is trying to increase the efficiency of the uptake process particularly in the intestinal tract. A lot of drugs work well at their target site, it's just a matter of getting them through the intestinal tract in an efficient/effective manner.

In the case of vascular and intestinal cells they will lay down their own ECM as they grow and expand. I have yet to read a paper where the researchers didn't prep the device with fibronectin as a ECM base layer.

Working with one or two cell lines in these devices can be incredibly difficult due to the different media requirements. It is much more rewarding in regard to the information gained, but it requires a lot of skill and luck to get things to work properly. We are a long ways off from getting complex hormonal or immune responses in these kinds of systems. Most intestinal cell lines can exhibit basic inflammatory responses, but that's it.

You know what fair. There are obviously systems in which this work is vital such as drug delivery through a long system etc. That sounds fascinating! Definitely never thought of them in such a capacity.

I do think biomimetic co-culture systems from patient samples will become much more common over the next decade, however, even those would have issues studying such problems

I've heard of a 6 inch pianists, but this organ really will need a major breakthrough in the feild of micro musicians.

What is this, an organ for ANTS!!?!?

Silly you, everyone knows that cicadas are the musical ones!