I-CORPS: VASCULARIZED ORGAN-ON-A-CHIP PLATFORM FOR BIOPHARMACEUTICAL TESTING

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Biopharmaceuticals have revolutionized treatment of cancer, immune, inflammatory and neurological diseases. As these drugs are administered to patients intravenously and then distributed by vasculature to target tissues, their testing in vitro has not been predictive enough. Next, because these drugs are humanized, predicting safety hazards from animal studies has been challenging and volunteers suffered from severe reactions. For these reasons, economics and timeline associated with drug development, biopharmaceutical industry seeks human organ-on-a-chip platforms for more predictive drug testing. Unfortunately, there has not yet been a system that is simple enough for researchers to use, in adequate throughput, and standardized enough to fit into drug screening workflows. The goal of this project is to help solve this problem for researchers by setting a foothold for development of a human organ-on-a-chip platform that is easy for them to use, high-throughput, and in a standard format to readily integrate into their testing routine.The proposed innovation is a simple tool in a medium throughput, a tool that any researcher can use and be able to answer all the questions that complex commercial perfusion systems do (if all the hardware that services them could be put in one lab and researchers trained on how to use it all). The proposed vascularized organ-on-a-chip platform (PerfusionPal) will be in standard format, high throughput, easy to use and fit into routine pharmaceutical workflows. It will be diagnostic and prognostic; diagnostic to assess target specificity, cross-reactivity with off-target tissues and to identify biomarkers; and prognostic or capable of predicting severe reactions in clinical trials such as cytokine storms, infusion reactions, immune suppression and off-target organ liabilities. PerfusionPal commercialization will triage dangerous drug leads and enable faster and cheaper development of safe drugs from bench to bedside for the benefit of patients, healthcare industry and society.