Organ-on-Chip: Animal-Free Methods for Drug Safety Testing

动物试验对人类新药的预测力很差，因此我们必须找到一种新的更好的方法来测试新药的安全性。我们的总体目标是开发新的高通量方法，利用先进的人类组织培养促进临床前测试，长期目标是对人类产生积极影响(使用更安全、更有效的药物)，同时取代动物体内药物测试的使用。为了实现这一目标，我们将与我们的合作伙伴英国动物自由研究组织(AFRUK)合作，利用新颖的光学光谱方法来改变新药的药物测试，以深入探索基于细胞的动物器官结构(作为所谓的“芯片上器官”)。新方法将通过探索药物在肝脏中的新陈代谢(及其毒性)和/或药物在皮肤或胃肠道内的吸附所涉及的参数，在药代动力学应用中进行演示。该项目的目标是提供准确的体外药物吸收和代谢过程的模型，而不是使用体内动物试验。该项目将为您提供在生物科学和物理/化学/工程学之间工作的经验，并有机会开发新的光谱/光学传感方法和新的芯片上器官细胞培养技术。这项工作将与AFRUK的原则保持一致，并将使用无动物培养方法在微型制造设备中将“器官”组装成椭圆形结构。

The predictive power of animal tests of new human drugs is poor, so we must find a new and better way to test the safety of new drugs. Our overall ambition is to develop new high throughput methods that advance preclinical testing using advanced human tissue culture with long term aims that will positively impact humans (with safer, more effective medicines), whilst replacing the use of animals in in vivo drug testing.To achieve this, we will work with our partner, the charity Animal Free Research UK (AFRUK) to transform pharmaceutical testing of new drugs using novel optical spectroscopic methods to probe deep into cell-based constructs of animals' organs (as a so-called "organ-on-chip). The new methodologies will be demonstrated within pharmacokinetic applications by exploring parameters involved in the metabolism of drugs in the liver (and their toxicity) and/or the adsorption of drugs either across the skin or within the GI tract. The ambition is to provide accurate models of the processes of drug uptake and metabolism in vitro, without using in vivo animal testing.The project will provide you with experience of working at the interface between the biological sciences and physics/chemistry/engineering, with the opportunity to develop new spectroscopical/optical sensing methods and novel organ-on-chip cell culture techniques. The work will be aligned to the principles of AFRUK, and "organs" will be assembled as spheroid constructs in microfabricated devices using animal free culture methods.