Project description
A cancer-on-chip platform for drug discovery
Three-dimensional cell cultures are emerging as promising models for cancer drug discovery, toxicology as well as preclinical and personalised medicine studies. Apart from their biomimetic nature and reproducibility of results, they also facilitate the reduction of animal experimentation. The EU-funded MImETIC INDiRECT project has developed a microfluidics-based culture system that encompasses a chip chamber coated with an extracellular matrix as well as temperature and oxygen sensors. Importantly, the system uses optimised growth factor culture media and is compatible with imaging equipment. Researchers will employ cell lines to reconstruct in vitro 3D cancer models and promote these versatile cell-on-chip platforms for commercialisation.
Objective
MImETIC INDiRECT aims to develop a standardised, accessible, versatile organ-on-chip toolkit for cancer biology and drug discovery research, compatible with microscopy-based (live imaging and confocal) techniques. The project is expected to facilitate academia and industry adoption of microfluidic 3D cell culture systems for comparable and reproducible results in a complex biomimetic animal free model for cancer drug discovery, toxicology, advanced (pre)clinical as well as personalized medicine. The toolkit components will consist of an integrated temperature controller dual-chamber chip, the Cherry Biotech CubiX system and growth factor optimized collagenous solutions for each chip chamber. The dual chamber chip, with cellular migration lanes, will have two tailored collagen-based formulations, designed per chamber. The CubiX platform is a compact flow and temperature controller, allowing optional sensor (e.g. O2) integration, compatible with single chips or 24-well plates. The cancer(s) sub-types to be used toolkit standardization will be dictated by market needs, where commercial cell lines (cancerous and non-cancerous) will be used to create the microvascularized complex tissue model. Potential project risks have been identified with appropriate mitigation strategies, where the project promotes adoption of standardized, cost-effective and versatile cancer organ-on-chip platforms in the market, rather than disruptive academic findings. Access of the aforementioned system to a worldwide growth market will fully exploit the project results, disseminated by direct and indirect marketing and scientific approaches. Project implementation will be an academic-industry collaborative and multidisciplinary manner providing the acquisition of diverse and unconventional complementary skills, leading to an understanding of both sectors requirements. We envision the above-mentioned to facilitate future academic and industry collaborations.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discovery
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespersonalized medicine
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesmicrotechnologyorgan on a chip
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-SE - Society and Enterprise panelCoordinator
93100 Montreuil
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.