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

细胞培养是指在不使用动物的情况下，在实验室条件下培养活细胞，以便更好地了解身体功能、疾病或开发新药。传统上，细胞是在二维玻璃或塑料表面（如培养皿和培养皿）中生长的，通常是隔离培养的，忽略了对维持组织功能重要的多种细胞类型。然而，没有细胞单独存在于人体内，创建多种细胞类型的组织模型对于模拟器官特定功能的真实本质以及改进研究和药物发现至关重要。包括制药工业、研究机构和大学在内的许多部门的研究人员将传统的细胞培养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发挥了至关重要的作用，例如新药或疫苗的开发。然而，当在患者身上进行测试时，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，细胞生长受限于可用的二维表面。药物性肝损伤（DILI）和神经毒性是开发和上市后药物停药期间药物失效的主要原因。需要一种更具预测性的工具来评估药物发现早期的肝脏和神经毒性风险。用于临床前安全性筛选的基于人类细胞的实验室模型越来越多地被开发为动物试验的替代方法。revvocell有限公司正在开发一种新型的器官芯片（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。现有旨在促进肝脏特异性功能的3d细胞培养技术价格昂贵，使用困难，不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疗法的成功率，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。revvocell的发明将提供一种可靠、快速和经济有效的设备，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