Organs-on-chips : exploring the utility of biosynthesised organ tissue to improve efficiency of the drug development process

Drug development is an expensive process, partly because of the required testing for human toxicity and efficacy of drugs. Organ-on-a-chip is a multichannel 3D microfluidic cell culture chip that simulates the activities and mechanics of entire organs and organ systems. Organ-on-chip is expected to reduce the amount of animal testing, and may increase efficiency of drug development. For instance, when organ-on-a-chip is used to replace or added to in vivo testing experiments, 7.5-10% of drug development costs may be saved. This study explores the expected advantages of organ-on-chip technologies as well as potential barriers to implement.