From chip to cure Braunschweig Part of the major EU project UNLOOC on organs-on-a-chip

Fewer animal testings, more reliable results and individually optimised medicines: 51 partners from ten European countries have joined forces for the grand vision of the 68 million euro EU project UNLOOC. Together, they want to revolutionise drug research with organ-on-a-chip, a combination of chip technology and human cells. A key part of the technology is being developed by the Institute for CMOS Design at Technische Universität Braunschweig. Using miniaturised components, the researchers are helping to perfectly simulate and reproduce human skin.

Before a drug reaches humans in clinical trials, potential risks and side effects are investigated in animal studies. But the extent to which these tests can predict such risks is always very limited. Humans and mice are so different that nine out of ten clinical trials fail, despite promising results in animals. People are also different, so even successful clinical trials usually report serious side effects that can occur in individual patients. More clinical trials minimise these risks, but there is usually too little variation in the trials to be able to target individual side effects.

Scientists have been working for years to minimise animal testing and to develop personalised medicine. One of the greatest opportunities lies in the simulation of human organs – or even better, several organs at the same time – using organs-on-chips. Microfluidic channels with living cells, for example, simulate the structure and function of organs. With individual cells, this simulation can even be personalised. Researchers can then test how different drugs work, detect overdoses and monitor entire disease processes in a controlled way. Combining several organs-on-chips could even enable holistic studies of environmental conditions and metabolism.

Sensors to monitor biological processes

Despite great progress, this in silico method is not yet sufficiently reliable and effective. A wide range of disciplines need to work together to develop the complex chips. In the UNLOOC project, researchers from the Institute for CMOS Design in the Metrology Research Department at TU Braunschweig are in demand. Over the next three years, they will develop the integrated circuits for the central sensors of the skin-on-chip technology. These microsensors will continuously monitor the proliferation and growth of cells in multilayer microfluidic structures.

About the project

UNLOOC stands for ‘Unlocking data content of Organ-On-Chips’. The European Union is funding UNLOOC with 68 million euros, bringing together 51 partners from ten countries to research a ‘key digital technology’. TU Braunschweig’s share of the funding is 740,000 euros. The project will run for three years until May 2027.