Since ancient times, animals have been used to test the safety of chemicals for human use. But animal testing is a slow, expensive and ethically contentious process, causing major bottlenecks in safety evaluations for an ever-increasing list of products.
Dr. Arum Han , electrical and computer engineering professor and associate dean for research for the Texas A&M University College of Engineering, is leading organ-on-a-chip technology development efforts in the newly established $15.3 million National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported center, which he says has the potential to significantly reduce or even replace animal testing in the future.
This effort is part of the recently established New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) Decision Center at Texas A&M. Han and his team will work alongside other teams within the lab and across the country to advance organ-on-a-chip technology with a focus on modeling human biological responses and improving chemical toxicity testing. Their goal is to achieve chemical safety testing that is faster, more accurate, less costly and reduces or replaces animal use.
This funding is one of the first awards under a national initiative called the Complement-Animal Research in Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) program. The initiative was created to advance progress in alternative toxicity testing methods, also known as NAMs.
What is organ-on-a-chip technology?
Organs-on-chips (OoCs) are microfluidic devices lined with living human cells that mimic real biological responses. Also known as tissue chips, these USB-sized devices offer a faster and more effective approach to evaluating chemical safety than traditional animal testing.
The chips simulate real human organ processes and can replicate complex biological functions, such as lungs taking a breath or blood flowing through a vessel. A variety of specimens, including gut, skin and even brain tissue, can be tested simply by growing them on a chip in laboratory settings.
When labs develop a new chemical or drug, they often rely on animal subjects to determine toxicity, but testing a wide range of products on animals is extremely expensive and time-consuming. Legal barriers also arise in jurisdictions with animal-testing bans, particularly in the cosmetics industry.
With tissue-chip systems, researchers can first screen chemicals using these human-mimicking devices before final-round testing on animals. Highly unsafe products are flagged by the chips before even making it to animal testing, making the process faster, cheaper, more biologically accurate and more ethically conscious.
Practical uses for the technology
The major application for organ-on-a-chip technology is providing a new, more effective way to perform chemical and drug safety testing. With these chips, companies can identify toxic compounds early and avoid investing money into products that may never be approved.
A secondary application is using them to determine not only if something is toxic, but why. Understanding the actual biological mechanisms of toxicity in a chemical can help researchers start with safer alternatives, rather than finding out later.
Primary users of this technology could include regulators, manufacturers, toxicologists and researchers studying environmental health.
Han’s focus
While many labs are focusing on drug safety, Han’s team is focusing on using the technology for chemical toxicity testing, building on Texas A&M’s nationally recognized toxicology program.
“The university’s toxicology program, of which I am a proud member, has a long history of looking at environmental chemicals, so that is our focus area,” Han said. “In our project, the tissue chip is a key component. Instead of relying entirely on animal testing, we’re asking whether we can develop and deploy organ-on-a-chip systems that can accurately predict toxicity while also being cost-efficient and having sufficient throughput to test a large number of chemicals of interest.”
Researchers in Han’s lab are currently working on expanding the chip’s capabilities from first-line testing to comprehensive testing. Ultimately, the team hopes organ-on-a-chip systems will provide the robust data needed to reduce reliance on animal testing while improving researchers’ ability to evaluate chemical safety.
By Amy Leifeste, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University
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