UW-Madison researchers received funding for their work screening chemicals and developing technology to test the effect of drugs on the body.
The National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday the multidisciplinary UW-Madison and Morgridge Institute for Research team will receive approximately $7 million for a three-year project, according to a university release.
The team and 10 other universities are doing “promising” work for the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program.
Researchers succeeded in getting pre-differentiated human cells from stem cells to grow in a tissue-like environment. These cells are known as pluripotent neural progenitor cells.
The cells then differentiate, self-organize and mature into complex neural tissues, according to the release. The cells assemble into a structure about one-fifth the circumference of a dime, mimicking a developing brain.
The team is also testing an algorithm that can predict toxic responses to compounds. The system was 100 percent accurate when testing 45 known toxins and non-toxic control compounds.
The next phase of the NIH program includes improving ways to predict drug safety and effectiveness. The release said researchers will refine existing 3-D human tissue chips and create an integrated system mimicking the “complex functions of the human body.”
Christopher Austin, NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences director, said in the release the technology could be “revolutionary” as a quick and thrifty step in drug testing before human clinical trials.
“That is exactly why we are supporting the development of human tissue chip technology,” Austin said in the release. "We aim to get more treatments to more patients more efficiently."
