Organ-on-a-chip platforms for drug development, cellular toxicity assessment, and disease modeling.

Abstract

Organs-on-chips (OoCs) or microphysiological platforms are biomimetic systems engineered to emulate organ structures on microfluidic devices for biomedical research. These microdevices can mimic biological environments that enable cell-cell interactions on a small scale by mimicking 3D in vivo microenvironments outside the body. Thus far, numerous single and multiple OoCs that mimic organs have been developed, and they have emerged as forerunners for drug efficacy and cytotoxicity testing. This review explores OoC platforms to highlight their versatility in studies of drug safety, efficacy, and toxicity. We also reflect on the potential of OoCs to effectively portray disease models for possible novel therapeutics, which is difficult to achieve with traditional 2D in vitro models, providing an essential basis for biologically relevant research.