PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
2-Sep-2014
Contact: John P. Wikswo john.wikswo@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-4124 Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
The Annual Thematic issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine that appears in September 2014 is devoted to "The biology and medicine of microphysiological systems" and describes the work of scientists participating in the Microphysiological Systems Program directed by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and funded in part by the NIH Common Fund. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are collaborating with the NIH in the program. Fourteen of the research teams supported by the program have contributed papers and represent more than 20 institutions, including Baylor College of Medicine, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Nortis, Inc., the University of California, Irvine, the University of Central Florida, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas Medical Branch, and Vanderbilt University.
Dr. John P. Wikswo, founding Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education and Editor of the Thematic Issue, explains in his introductory review that microphysiological systems (MPS) often called "organs-on-chips" are interacting sets of constructs of human cells. Each construct is designed to recapitulate the structure and function of a human organ or organ region, and when connected in an MPS, they may provide in vitro models with great physiological accuracy for studying cell-cell, drug-cell, drug-drug, and organ-drug interactions. The papers in the Thematic Issue describe the ongoing development of MPS as in vitro models for bone and cartilage, brain, gastrointestinal tract, lung, liver, microvasculature, reproductive tract, skeletal muscle, and skin, as well as the interconnection of organs-on-chips to support physiologically based pharmacokinetics and drug discovery and screening, and the microscale technologies that regulate stem cell differentiation. Wikswo notes that the initial motivation for creating MPS was to increase the efficiency and human relevance of pharmaceutical development and testing. Obvious applications of the technology include studies of the effect of environmental toxins on humans, identification, characterization, and neutralization of chemical and biological weapons, controlled studies of the microbiome and infectious disease that cannot be conducted in humans, controlled differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into specific adult cellular phenotypes, and studies of the dynamics of metabolism and signaling within and between human organs.
In his commentary for the Thematic Issue, Dr. William Slikker Jr., Director of the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research, writes "The goal [is] to accomplish this human-on-a-chip capability in a decade a feat somewhat equivalent to the moon shot of the 1960s and, like landing man on the moon, simulating a human being from a physiological/toxicological perspective may indeed be possible. But even if ultimately it is not, a great deal of fundamental biology and physiology will be elucidated along the way, much to the benefit of our understanding of human health and disease processes."
Dr. D. Lansing Taylor, Director of the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute, says "The Thematic Issue brings together the leaders of the field of Human-on-a-Chip to discuss the early successes, great potential and continuing challenges of this emerging field. For complete success, we must integrate advances in multiple technical areas, including microfluidics, stem cell biology, 3D microstructures/matrices, multi-cell engineering, universal blood substitutes, and a variety of biological detection technologies, database tools, and computational modeling for both single and a combination of organ systems. Success will be transformative for basic biology, physiology, pharmacology, toxicology and medicine, as well as the new field of quantitative systems pharmacology, where iterative experimentation and computational modeling of disease models and pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics are central. The focus is to create physiologically relevant, robust, reproducible and cost-effective tools for the scientific community."
Dr. Danilo A. Tagle, NIH NCATS Associate Director for Special Initiatives, adds "This special issue highlights the exciting and rapid progress towards development of MPS for drug safety and efficacy testing. Much progress has been achieved in the two years of the program, and these articles describe the efforts by an outstanding group of investigators towards realizing the goal of fully integrated 10 organ systems. There are tremendous scientific opportunities and discoveries that could be had in the future utility of these tissues/organs on chips."
Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine, agrees. "We are proud to publish this Thematic Issue dedicated to "The biology and medicine of microphysiological systems." Dr. John Wikswo is to be congratulated for assembling an exceptional group of researchers who are leaders in the field of MPS and the many uses of this exciting technology. MPS has the potential to revolutionize experimental biology and medicine. Because of the great importance and promise of organs-on-chips and MPS technology, it has now become a major area of emphasis for the Systems Biology category of Experimental Biology and Medicine."
###
Excerpt from:
Microphysiological systems will revolutionize experimental biology and medicine
- Howard H. Seliger, Hopkins biology professor [Last Updated On: January 1st, 2013] [Originally Added On: January 1st, 2013]
- General Biology-Concepts and Investigations - Video [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2013] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2013]
- Biology Reproduction part 13 (Sexual reproduction: Flower Structure) CBSE class 10 X - Video [Last Updated On: January 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: January 9th, 2014]
- How far can a Buddhist approach to biology take us? [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2014]
- Biology revision song on protein synthesis by Andrew Perkins - Video [Last Updated On: January 30th, 2014] [Originally Added On: January 30th, 2014]
- Scientific Evidence for Creation CSE BIBLE FORUM Origins 1212 Dr Seuss Biology - Video [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2014]
- Synthetic biology lab backed by 2 million award [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Vanguard High teacher wins 2014 Shell Science Lab Challenge [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Biohacking and the problem of bioterrorism [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Synthetic genetic clock keeps accurate time across a range of temperatures [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Math modeling integral to synthetic biology research [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Vacancies in biology dept. impact course options [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Dr. Joshua Reece Earns Best Presentation Award At Conference [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Life Science Reference - Biology Online [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- 9th Grade Biology: A Hectic Introduction to Mammals - Video [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Theism vs Evolution, Biology, and History - Video [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- AP Biology Ch.49 Circulatory System Livestream - Video [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- AP Biology Review Cards - Video [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- AP Biology - Chapter 49 Circulatory System Part 1 - Video [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- MSc Biology and PhD Boreal Ecology - Video [Last Updated On: April 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 9th, 2014]
- Whale tales: Students set sail for biology class research [Last Updated On: April 10th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 10th, 2014]
- Barnard biology professor honored with Emily Gregory award for teaching [Last Updated On: April 10th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 10th, 2014]
- biology: Definition from Answers.com - Answers - The Most ... [Last Updated On: April 10th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 10th, 2014]
- Biology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: April 10th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 10th, 2014]
- Bridging the Brain Disease Knowledge Gap through Computational Modeling and Systems Biology: An O... - Video [Last Updated On: April 10th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 10th, 2014]
- Sharpening microscope images: New technique takes cues from astronomy, ophthalmology [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- COLLEGE NEWS: April 13 [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Eureka Once, Eureka Twice [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Biology [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- The Art of Nutrients - Biology Song - 'Counting Stars' Remake - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Biology - The Nervous System - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- OCR AS BIOLOGY: - Cell Structures - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Evolutionary Biology Research / F. Robin O'Keefe and Julie Meachen / Page Museum - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- What Is a Thyroid In Biology? : Let's Get Medical - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Red Ice Radio - Sofia Smallstorm - Hour 1 - Chemtrails to Pseudo-Life & Synthetic Biology - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- STARNES: Did professor advocate censorship of conservative student newspaper? [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- German Research Foundation approves new priority program in the life sciences [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Announcing BioCoder issue 3 [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Poetry by Linda Bierds, Buddhism and biology [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Digestion - Biology Music Video - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- AS Level Biology- Edexcel/SNAB- Unit 1 Revision Notes - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- The Anatomy Of The Heart - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- #OilerNation Biology Program Q & A Hangout - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Northwestern University researchers on synthetic biology - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (Vienna) - Video [Last Updated On: April 16th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 16th, 2014]
- Biology 1B - 2014-04-14 - Video [Last Updated On: April 16th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 16th, 2014]
- AP Biology Review 3/7: Cell Energy - Video [Last Updated On: April 16th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 16th, 2014]
- MCB 410: Developmental Biology - Video [Last Updated On: April 16th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 16th, 2014]
- Dyslexic Advantage - UCSF Symposium - Dr Fumiko Hoeft - Biology of Stealth Dyslexia - Video [Last Updated On: April 16th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 16th, 2014]
- Life cycle of Silkworm- Insect Molecular Biology Lab, Dr.M.Krishnan, Bharathithasan University. - Video [Last Updated On: April 16th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 16th, 2014]
- Tracking flu levels with Wikipedia [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Biology major Katharine Leigh '15 wins Udall scholarship [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- First in the nation: UW-Madison establishes post-doc in feminist biology [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Biology Project: Predation - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Report Focussing On Biology Underlining - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- edX | MITx: Quantitative Biology Workshop: 7QBWx About Video - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Cell Mediated Response (Erdmann's 2B-3 AP Biology) - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Biology Plantae part 13 (Mosses: structure, life cycle, mosses vs leafy liverwots) CBSE class 11 XI - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Biology - Photosynthesis - Video [Last Updated On: April 19th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 19th, 2014]
- The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetics and Biology of Intention - Video [Last Updated On: April 19th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 19th, 2014]
- Introduction to Synthetic Biology Andrew Hessel - Video [Last Updated On: April 19th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 19th, 2014]
- Teacher of Biology [Last Updated On: April 21st, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 21st, 2014]
- Biology - Osmosis - Video [Last Updated On: April 21st, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 21st, 2014]
- UW to host first feminist biology post-doc program in nation [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- The Biology Project: Cell Biology - University of Arizona [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- The Biology Corner [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- Rader's BIOLOGY 4 KIDS.COM - Biology basics for everyone! [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- Stanford CF Education Day 2014 Understanding the Biology - Video [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- 9th Grade Biology: Hectic Introduction to the Human Organ Systems pt.1 - Video [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- Honors Biology and Biology Mrs. Ellis - Video [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- Biology professor researches parasites [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- TRANSCRIPTION-Biology - Video [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- 2014 Interdisciplinary Innovation Forum: "Mathematical Biology" - Video [Last Updated On: April 22nd, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 22nd, 2014]
- This Week in Genome Biology [Last Updated On: April 24th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 24th, 2014]
- Biology - Calvin Cycle - Video [Last Updated On: April 24th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 24th, 2014]
- Systems biology course 2014 Uri Alon - lecture 3: FFL and more - Video [Last Updated On: April 24th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 24th, 2014]
- Systems biology course 2014 Uri Alon - lecture 2: Auto regulation - Video [Last Updated On: April 24th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 24th, 2014]
- Systems biology course 2014 Uri Alon - lecture 1: Basic concepts - Video [Last Updated On: April 24th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 24th, 2014]
- 9th Grade Biology: Hectic Introduction to the Human Organ Systems pt.2 - Video [Last Updated On: April 24th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 24th, 2014]
- Have Atheists Hijacked Biology? - Video [Last Updated On: April 24th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 24th, 2014]