A new $15.3 million center supported by the National Institutes of Health is developing organ-on-chip systems that researchers can use to evaluate chemical toxicity and human biological responses.
The New Approach Methodologies Decision Center at Texas A&M University is one of the first projects funded through the NIH Complement Animal Research in Experimentation program. Known as Complement-ARIE, the program supports new approach methodologies, or NAMs, that can complement or provide alternatives to conventional animal studies.
Arum Han, PhD, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Texas A&M, is leading the center’s organ-on-chip technology development. His team will work with researchers at Texas A&M and other US institutions to improve the cost, throughput, and predictive performance of the models, according to the university’s center announcement.
Building human biology into chemical testing
Organs-on-chips, also called tissue chips, are microfluidic devices lined with living human cells. Depending on their design, they can recreate selected tissue interfaces and physical conditions, such as fluid flowing through a blood vessel or the mechanical movement associated with breathing.
The Texas A&M team will focus on chemical toxicity rather than limiting the work to pharmaceutical development. The center aims to determine whether organ-on-chip systems can generate sufficiently robust data while remaining affordable and scalable for testing large numbers of chemicals.
That combination matters because a model that performs well in a small research study might still be difficult to incorporate into a routine screening program. Throughput, batch consistency, assay duration, cell sourcing, and data interpretation all influence whether a platform can move from method development into sustained laboratory use.
Han said the researchers want to expand the chips from first-line screens to more comprehensive tests. In addition to identifying potentially toxic compounds, the platforms could help investigators examine the biological mechanisms behind a toxic response.
Operational questions for laboratories
Adopting organ-on-chip testing requires laboratories to manage both cell-culture and microfluidic workflows. Managers may need to assess staff competency in maintaining human cells, operating perfusion systems, monitoring environmental conditions, imaging tissues, and analyzing multiple streams of biological data.
Labs must also control variables that can affect model performance. Cell source and passage, chip materials, flow rate, mechanical stimulation, media composition, and sampling schedules can all become part of a method’s operating range. Automation could support consistency and throughput, an issue also encountered in complex 3D cell-model workflows, but each automated step would still require qualification and monitoring.
The center’s regulatory emphasis adds another layer. If NAM data are intended to inform safety decisions, laboratories will need defined acceptance criteria, reference compounds, appropriate controls, and records demonstrating how the method performed over time. Cross-site comparisons will also depend on common protocols and clearly characterized materials.
Previous organ-on-chip research has shown how changes in membranes and tissue spacing can affect model behavior. For example, an ultrathin silk membrane developed for organ-on-chip models allowed cells to grow closer together in a kidney model. The new center will confront the broader challenge of turning such advances into repeatable chemical-testing systems.
This article was created with the assistance of Generative AI and has undergone editorial review before publishing.
