A novel Liver & Brain multi-organ-chip model : rapid and reduced cost pre-clinical safety drug screening

细胞培养涉及在实验室条件下生长活细胞，而不使用动物，以便更好地了解身体功能，疾病或开发新药。传统上，细胞生长在2-D玻璃或塑料表面如培养皿和平板中，并且通常隔离培养，忽略了在维持组织功能中重要的多种细胞类型。然而，人体内没有一个细胞是单独存在的，因此，创建多种细胞类型的组织模型对于模拟器官特异性功能的真实性质以及改善研究和药物发现至关重要。许多领域的研究人员，包括制药行业、研究机构和大学，都将传统的细胞培养应用于哺乳动物细胞的生长和测试。细胞培养在许多生命科学发现中起着至关重要的作用，例如新药或疫苗的开发。然而，当在患者中进行测试时，结果往往缺乏相关性，因为与真正的三维（3-D）复杂的活组织多细胞环境相比，细胞生长被限制在可用的2-D表面内。药物诱导的肝损伤（DILI）和神经毒性是药物开发和上市后药物撤回期间失败的主要原因。在药物发现的早期，需要一种更具预测性的工具来评估肝脏和神经毒性风险。Revivocell Ltd正在开发一种新型的Organ-on-a-chip（OOAC）细胞培养平台，该平台可以更好地模拟细胞的环境，以增强其功能，例如在体外环境中作为肝脏。现有的旨在促进肝脏特异性功能的3D细胞培养技术价格昂贵，难以使用，并且不容易适应不同的实验和细胞类型。这项技术有可能提高开发新治疗的成功率，并减少对动物试验的依赖。该项目的目的是评估新开发的OOAC技术模拟肝脏和神经特异性微环境的可行性。Revivocell的发明将提供一种可靠、快速和成本效益高的设备，可在全球范围内使用

Cell culture involves the growth of living cells in laboratory conditions without using animals in order to gain better understanding of body function, disease or to develop new drugs. Conventionally, cells are grown in 2-D glass or plastic surfaces such as Petri-dishes and plates, and are normally cultured in isolation, ignoring multiple cell types important in maintaining tissue function. However, no cell lives alone in the human body and creating multiple cell type tissue models are essential to mimic the true nature of organ specific function and improve research and drug discovery.Researchers across many sectors, including the pharmaceutical industry, research organisations and universities apply conventional cell culture for the growth and testing of mammalian cells. Cell culture has played a vital role in many life science discoveries such as the development of new drugs or vaccines. However, the results often lack relevance when tested in patients as the cell growth is constrained within the available 2-D surface when compared to true three-dimensional (3-D) complex multicellular environments of living tissue.Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) and neurotoxicity are leading causes of drug failure during development and post-market drug withdrawal. There is a need for a more predictive tools to assess liver and neurotoxicity risks early in drug discovery. Human cell-based laboratory models for pre-clinical safety screening are increasingly being developed as alternative methods to animal testing.Revivocell Ltd is developing a novel Organ-on-a-chip (OOAC) cell culture platform, that can better simulate the environment for cells to enhance their function, for example as a liver in an _in-vitro_ setting. Existing 3-D cell culture technologies aiming to promote liver specific functionality are expensive, difficult to use and are not easily adaptable for different experiments and cell types.This technology has the potential to increase the success rate of developing new treatments and reduce the reliance on animal testing. The objective of this project is to assess the feasibility of a newly developed OOAC technology to mimic the liver and neuro-specific microenvironment. Revivocell's invention will provide a reliable, fast and cost effective device that could be used worldwide