Abstract

Going 3D All The Way: 3D Microtissues in Modular Organ-on-a-Chip Solutions For Human-Centric Drug Discovery

Jan Lichtenberg, Chief Executive Officer, InSphero AG

Scaffold-free 3D microtissues have evolved into the most widely used technology for highly predictive and most scalable cell-based assays in drug safety and discovery. While they provide a faithful in-vitro approximation of the in-vivo tissue microenvironment, they were not amenable for modeling microphysiological features up to now. Here, we present a new multi-organ-on-a-chip system featuring microfluidic channels and chambers that were specifically engineered for culturing 3D microtissues and organoids under physiological flow conditions. The platform complies with the SBS plate standard and is made of polystyrene to prevent unwanted compound absorption. It allows for an automated and on-demand interconnection of up to 10 microtissues per channel in a highly  flexible fashion. Different from the majority of organ-on-a-chip solutions, the off-chip formation of 3D microtissues allows for an optimized tissue engineering processes, pre-loading quality control and higher yields. Enabling an automated removal and re-insertion of 3D microtissues from and into the device, this platform finally ads deep endpoints such as next-gen sequencing, lipidomics, FACS to the analytical toolbox for organ-on-a-chip applications. We’ll illustrate this new approach with examples in DMPK for low clearance and microtissue cross talk.