Mini-organism instead of millions of animal experiments

TU scientists developed a mini-organism that will make millions of animal experiments superfluous

02/20/2015

According to EU statistics, 11.4 million animals were used in research and development in 2011, most of them for testing. However, the validity of tests on animals remains limited for their effect on humans. Many expensive experiments are therefore canceled again. Prof. Dr. Roland Lauster and his team from the TU Department of Medical Biotechnology are currently developing „Human on the chip“-Platforms, micro-scale organ structures that fit on a chip and respond to agents like real organs. Already finished and functional is the „Two institutions chip“. Dr. med. Uwe Marx, a scientist from the team and managing director of TissUse GmbH, the Animal Welfare Research Award of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).

„We hope that we will eliminate the need for millions of animals every year in Germany alone - and at the same time significantly reduce the development costs of new medicines, cosmetics and chemicals.“ The TU scientist Together with his team and cooperation partners, Uwe Marx has developed the multi-organ chip (MOC), a forward-looking alternative to animal experiments and subsequent tests on human subjects. Researchers in the field of medical biotechnology have specialized in the long-term cultivation of microscopic human organs and organ systems. To do so, they use only a few living cells, for example from the liver, brain, skin, kidney or intestine, which each map and simulate the complete function of the organ in an organotypic three-dimensional arrangement on a smaller scale. Dr. Uwe Marx has so far succeeded in using a two-organ chip for several different long-term test procedures for substances intended for human use. The organ-like tissue structures on the chip are interconnected by blood vessel-like microchannels.

Future goal: the complete mini-organism
„The goal is to map a mini-organism with all the vital organs. But that is still future music“, explains Uwe Marx. But even with the current state of development, the researchers can already replace animal experiments on a large scale. „The microorganisms in the chip give us results that uniquely predict the natural response of human organs to, for example, the side effects of drugs, cosmetics, chemicals or other products, so that such products do not have to be preclinically tested on animals. The subsequent clinical tests on human volunteers could often be omitted.

Drug tests: Animals react differently
Animal organisms reacted quite differently than human ones. On average, nine out of ten drug candidates who have passed the safety and efficacy tests in the animal, and then in the clinical testing on humans still fell. It was these many failures that led to high development costs. „So we can kill two birds with one stone with our chip“, says Uwe Marx. „We reduce the suffering of millions upon millions of animals as well as the number of subjects in clinical trials while simultaneously reducing development costs.“ In order to successfully market the product, the scientists already had the „TissUse GmbH“ founded as a spin-off of the TU Berlin, whose managing director is Uwe Marx. „The development was made possible by funding from the 'GO-Bio-Competition' of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which supports start-up research teams in the life sciences. With the first products, we are now actively entering the commercialization phase“, explains Uwe Marx. And this innovation offers further promising potential for the Berlin start-up scene. (Pm)

Image: TU Berlin / PR / Phillip Arnoldt