Aragonese researchers and companies are looking for alternative experimental models to animals

Almost 100 scientists from 10 countries are participating in the European UNLOOC project. In Aragon, researchers from I3A, IIS Aragón and the companies Beonchip and EBERS are taking part.

Researchers and companies will focus on five applications, over three years, to achieve their objectives

The partners from Aragon will work on the breast cancer part and the creation of a platform to recreate the blood-brain barrier affordable for laboratories

Aragon already has an initiative to promote Organ On Chip (OOCA) technology, which includes the partners of this European project.

More than 50 academic, research and technology companies from 10 European countries, and nearly 100 researchers are tackling the challenge of develop innovative technologies to mitigate the challenges posed by the use of animals in drug development and testing. They will do so through the European Union project UNLOOC (Unlocking the Data Content of Organ-on-Chips). The three-year consortium, funded by the European Union, will be involved in the Chips Joint Undertaking and national agencies, Aragon participates in a significant way, through researchers from I3A Unizar (Engineering Research Institute of Aragon), the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragon), and the biotechnology companies Beonchip and Ebers.

The objective is to demonstrate, through five applications, how the Organ-on-chip technology (OOC) allows the creation of experimental models for finding more effective treatments, leaving animals out of the equationThe solutions to be developed in the UNLOOC project will not only enable controlled drug testing, but also model the pathophysiology of diseases.

Organ-on-chip is a rapidly advancing technology that aims to replicate the physiological and functional properties of human organs and has made significant progress in recent years. With it, it is about replicate the physiological and functional properties of human organs on a microstructured platform, microfluidic channels lined with living cells that mimic the structures and functions of specific organs. By emulating the microenvironment of organs, they provide a powerful tool for drug development, disease modeling and personalized medicine.

Aragon has a large representation in this project and work is being done on two of the five applications included in the project.  On the one hand, the development of smart multi-well plates ready for the industry in breast cancer, in which researchers from IISA and the company Beonchip are involved. On the other hand, the development of an integrated system for fluidic control, sensors and incubation for a blood-brain barrier model, in which I3A-Unizar and the companies EBERS and Beonchip, which leads this application and coordinates the project in Spain, are involved.

It so happens that, in addition, ARagón already has an initiative to promote Organ On Chip (OOCA) technology of which the partners of this European project are part.

Ethical challenges and implications

Before drugs can move into human clinical trials, animal models have traditionally been used to validate drug efficacy, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics. However, The use of animal models brings many challenges, such as the low probability of transferring it to humans, high failure rates in clinical trials, excessive costs in drug development and the risk of death caused by unwanted side effects in approved drugs. To mitigate these serious risks in drug development, Better methods are needed to test drugs in human models or in the corresponding target groups. As an ethical implication, the potential suffering of the approximately 100 million animals currently used for drug experiments must also be avoided.

Other applications in the UNLOOC project

In addition to the work that will be carried out from Aragon, the UNLOOC project has other applications that will focus on:

• 3D organ models ready-to-use specimens that replicate human diversity by using a highly innovative cryopreservation method.
• Artificial epithelium design to evaluate transdermal drug delivery, skin penetration, absorbance and toxicity validated in a drug delivery and toxicity scenario.
• Development of an advanced lung platform on a chip to better assess the safety of new drug candidates.

The European project UNLOOC (Unlocking the Data Content of Organs on Chips) started last May. It has a budget of around 70 million euros, receives 14 million euros in funding from the Chips Joint Undertaking and 18 million from national agencies. Of this, Aragon is allocated almost two million euros.

UNLOOC brings together microfluidics, biological application, microelectronics, artificial intelligence and digital technologies key to new products and new avenues in drug development. The applications developed and validated in the project will be used by scientists in both academia and pharmaceutical companies to drive more comprehensive drug development, create safe cosmetics without animal testing, and gain new insights into diseases.

Source: Aragon Engineering Research Institute – I3A / University of Zaragoza

Image: Pedro Moreo (Ebers), Rosa Monge (Beonchip), Sara Oliván and Ignacio Ochoa (I3A researchers – IIS Aragón)