Can technology replace animal testing in drug development?

A new article, entitled “Integrated circuits that emulate human organs: Organs-on-chip” (“Circuitos integrados que simulam órgãos humanos: Órgãos-em-chip”) was recently published by INESC-ID researcher, in the area of Nano-Electronic Circuits and Systems, Fábio Passos, on Portuguese newspaper, “Jornal i”.

Traditionally, ensuring a drug’s safety for human consumption, requires extensive animal testing. This is not only a slow and costly process that sometimes causes animal suffering, but also often offers unreliable results for humans, resulting in undesirable side effects and failed tests. 

According to Fábio Passos, the Organ-on-chip (OOC) technology – a groundbreaking innovation that uses integrated circuits to mimic a human organ in a controlled microenvironment – could be the solution for this problem, and “the application of this technology promises to revolutionise drug development, disease research and personalised medicine, while reducing dependence on animal testing”.

The creation of OOC systems is, however, no small feat. Their composition is made of channels lined with living cells that mimic the structures and functions of specific organs, requiring the integration of multiple complex miniaturised components. The UNLOOC research project , which includes 51 organisations from 10 European countries, intends to tackle these technical challenges. In Portugal, partners like INESC-ID, INESC-MN, Instituto Superior Técnico, and Silicon Gate are developing analog integrated circuits for precise control and real-time monitoring of these systems.

Read the full article here (in Portuguese).