Blood vessel on a chip to test the effects of drugs on cardiovascular diseases

Ezequiel Álvarez

Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Only 60 % of the drugs that pass preclinical studies go on to successfully complete phase I clinical trials. This suggests that preclinical trials, such as 2D cellular cultures and animal models, may be insufficient in predicting drug response and toxicity in humans.

The development of organ-on-a-chip technology, which allows the cultivation of human cells representing one or several organs under physiological conditions, has allowed researchers to carry out highly controllable and reproducible studies which accurately reflect the inner workings of humans. However, to date, this technology has not been sufficiently developed for application to automated drug discovery and screening, a crucial step in drug development.

The main objective of this project is to develop an automated pharmacological trial to test the effects of drugs under more realistic conditions for cardiovascular diseases. In order to do so, they will design and fabricate an advanced vessel-on-a-chip technology to mimic the continuous flow of human vessels and later test its response to a library of known drugs.