Organ-on-a-chip technology for drug development

Drug development is a notoriously slow, complex and costly process, with over 90% of drug candidates failing before reaching the market. A major cause of this inefficiency is the reliance on traditional models, such as 2D cell cultures and animal models, which fail to accurately predict human responses. To address this, the US FDA announced plans to phase out animal testing, replacing it with more human-relevant methods. This is where organ-on-a-chip technology comes in.

This In Focus will explore how organ-on-a-chip technology can more accurately model human responses to drugs, toxins and disease conditions, providing an alternative way to screen drug candidates.