3D conducting polymer devices for hosting and monitoring human gut models with integrated fluidics

器官芯片（OoC）技术有可能彻底改变药物测试和毒理学行业，不仅可以简化临床前测试的早期阶段，减少昂贵的（有时无关紧要的）动物实验，还可以为个性化医疗提供真正的希望。尽管前景光明，但目前的OoC模型未能完全捕捉人类生理的复杂性，并且缺乏将监测技术集成到平台中。IMBIBE ERC加固项目的最新进展表明，3D多孔电极可用于承载和监测人体肠道组织的代表。这些设备能够承载人类肠道的多细胞模型，包括微生物群，现在被证明是人类生物学的一个组成部分，特别是在肠道中。细胞，人类和微生物，宿主在一个海绵状电极，模仿在体内的环境。当细胞生长时，电极动态地监测细胞，电极的电学特性由于细胞附着和组织分化而改变。我们已经与CN Bio Innovations（一家领先的生物工程公司，专门从事单和多器官OoC平台和创新实验室技术）建立了合作关系，以使我们的设备适应他们最先进的流体平台。由CN Bio开发的PhysioMimix器官芯片（PMX-OOC）是一种灵活且易于使用的OoC系统，它使用一系列不同的多孔消耗性板来开发单器官和多器官体外模型。结果将是一个复杂的生物电子设备，能够承载和监测复杂的人类肠道模型（在流动条件下）。我们预计，该结果将是一个具有预测性、准确性和高通量的平台，这将对制药行业具有成本效益和高效的药物发现、毒性测试、上市后监测和活体生物治疗药物的开发非常有吸引力。

Organ-on-chip (OoC) technologies have the potential to revolutionise the drug testing and toxicology industries, not just by stream-lining early stages of pre-clinical testing and reducing costly (and sometimes irrelevant) experimentation on animals, but also by offering real hope for personalised medicine. Despite this promise, current OoC models fail to fully capture human physiological complexity and suffer from lack of integration of monitoring technology into the platforms. Recent progress in the IMBIBE ERC consolidator project has shown that 3D porous electrodes can be used to host and monitor tissues representative of the human gut. These devices are capable of hosting multi-cellular models of the human gut, including microbiota, now shown to be an integral part of human biology, particularly in the gut. Cells, human and microbe, are hosted within a sponge-like electrode that mimics the in vivo environment. As they grow, cells are dynamically monitored by the electrode, whose electrical properties change due to cell attachment and tissue differentiation. We have established a collaboration with CN Bio Innovations, a leading bioengineering company specialising in single and multi-organ OoC platforms and innovative lab technologies, to adapt our device to their state of the art fluidic platform. The PhysioMimix Organ-on-Chip (PMX-OOC) developed by CN Bio is a flexible and simple to use OoC system which uses a range of different multi-well consumable plates to develop single and multi-organ in vitro models. The result will be a sophisticated bioelectronic device capable of hosting and monitoring a complex human model of the gut (under flow conditions). We anticipate that the result will be a predictive, accurate and high throughput platform which will be very attractive to the pharmaceutical industry for cost-effective and efficient drug discovery, toxicity testing, post market surveillance and development of live biotherapeutics.