Microphysiological systems: What it takes for community adoption

Abstract

Microphysiological systems (MPS) are promising in vitro tools which could substantially improve the drug development process, particularly for underserved patient populations such as those with rare diseases, neural disorders, and diseases impacting pediatric populations. Currently, one of the major goals of the National Institutes of Health MPS program, led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), is to demonstrate the utility of this emerging technology and help support the path to community adoption. However, community adoption of MPS technology has been hindered by a variety of factors including biological and technological challenges in device creation, issues with validation and standardization of MPS technology, and potential complications related to commercialization. In this brief Minireview, we offer an NCATS perspective on what current barriers exist to MPS adoption and provide an outlook on the future path to adoption of these in vitro tools.

Keywords: Microphysiological systems; National Institutes of Health; bioengineering; induced pluripotent stem cells; microfluidics.

Figure 1.

Example of a linked multi-organ system. (a) The ‘Interrogator’ device maintains fluidic coupling for 3 weeks between eight vascularized, two-channel cultured organ chips (intestine, liver, kidney, heart, lung, blood–brain barrier, brain, and skin). Scale bar, 5 mm. (b) These individual organ constructs can be linked to form a ‘human body-on-a-chip’. Individual organ chips were connected through vascular endothelial channels, allowing a variety of linkage possibilities and multiple sampling points. (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.) Source: Adapted with permission from Novak et al.

Figure 2.

The microphysiological systems (MPS) database is Key for the development and application of MPS. (a) The NCATS-funded MPS Database is a web-based system that aggregates experimental data taken from tissue chip developers, the NCATS-funded Tissue Chip Testing Centers, the FDA and the IQ Consortium (pharmaceutical partners). These MPS data are then aggregated with preclinical and clinical data taken from a variety of databases to enable analysis and comparison. The Database contains built-in tools to enable assessment of reproducibility and transferability of MPS experimental models and platforms, while additional computational models are being developed to enable utilization of MPS experimental models to better understand disease mechanism(s), drug and compound toxicity, and PK/PD drug predictions. (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.) Source: Adapted from Schurdak et al. CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). FDA: Food and Drug Administration; MPS: microphysiological systems; NCATS: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.