Project description
Revolutionising drug testing with organ-on-chip technology
In drug development, traditional animal testing faces significant challenges owing to methodological drawbacks and ethical concerns, and often fails to predict human reactions to the drug. The EU-funded UNLOOC project seeks to change this by developing organ-on-chip systems. These innovative devices simulate human organ responses, offering a safer and more reliable testing alternative. UNLOOC focuses on advancing tools based on engineered cell systems, using AI and enabling high-throughput testing. UNLOOC’s applications will aid academia and the pharmaceutical industry by advancing drug development, enabling cosmetics without animal testing, and supporting personalised medicine. The proposed approach aims to lower costs by up to USD 706 million per new drug, putting Europe at the forefront of this booming field.
Objective
The launch of a novel drug to the market is preceded by clinical testing and validation both on animal in vitro and in vivo models. Animal models used in drug development have known methodological drawbacks leading to the failure of drugs. Further, animal tests are associated with ethical issues. Moreover, a strong bias in in-human testing still overlooks major population groups e.g. children, women, different ethical groups. It is estimated that 197,000 deaths per year in the EU are caused by Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and the total cost to society of ADRs is €79 billion. The emerging Organ-on-Chip (OOC) field, an alternative to animal test, brings great potential for safe testing and validation: An OOC-systems consists of a 3D-microstructured channel network embedded on a small plastic device that simulates the mechanics and physiological response of an entire organ or organs. Project UNLOOC will develop, optimize, and validate a multitude of ECS-based tools to build OOC-models to replace animal and in-human testing. UNLOOC aims to combine three important characteristics for routine use of OOC models, i.e platforms that combine ECS-based technologies with established biological material, capitalize on AI, parallelized test set-ups allowing efficient high-throughput demands, and standardized procedures enabling reliable results. UNLOOC will develop ECS-based hardware and software tools and validate them in five Use Cases (UCs) performed in 10 European countries. The applications developed and validated will be used by academia and pharma industry to drive drug development, create cosmetics without animal test, personalized medicine and gain new insights into disease. Given the large OOC market, these solutions have great economic value, on average it would result in cost reduction of up to $169M and $706M per new drug reaching the market and will put Europe at the forefront of this booming research field (see impact section for details).
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesmicrotechnologyorgan on a chip
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-JU-IA - HORIZON JU Innovation ActionsCoordinator
07747 Jena
Germany
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Participants (44)
80686 Munchen
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1121 Budapest
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077190 VOLUNTARI
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48940 Leioa
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08028 Barcelona
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032032 BUCURESTI
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
5656 AG Eindhoven
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72770 Reutlingen
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
2595 DA Den Haag
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3001 Leuven
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2628 CN Delft
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6200 MD Maastricht
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50018 Zaragoza
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
13125 Berlin
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5656 AE Eindhoven
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79110 FREIBURG IM BREISGAU
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50009 Zaragoza
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T12 YN60 Cork
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08028 BARCELONA
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
50010 Zaragoza
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
7521 PV Enschede
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
07745 Jena
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50676 Koln
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1000 029 Lisboa
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4200-255 Porto
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1000 029 Lisboa
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7521PH Enschede
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
01307 Dresden
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
80044 OTTAVIANO - NA
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
27100 Pavia
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7521PH Enschede
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Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.
7521 PH Enschede
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.
7521PH Enschede
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Zwolle
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01510 Vitoria-Gasteiz
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
31192 TAJONAR
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46012 Valencia
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15782 Santiago De Compostela
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48950 Erandio Vizcaya
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
50009 Zaragoza
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5211 DA 'S-HERTOGENBOSCH
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
38106 Braunschweig
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20457 Hamburg
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7521 AN Enschede
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partners (6)
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2000 Neuchatel
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
8952 Schlieren
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
3006 Bern
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
8640 Rapperswil
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
8808 Pfäffikon
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2800 Delemont
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