First Organ-on-Chip Society in Spain: “The potential of this technology is limitless”

We share this interview with Ignacio Ochoa Garrido, first president of the new Spanish Society of Microphysiological Systems and Organ-on-Chip (SESMOcC)

This week, a baby was born in Zaragoza. Spanish Society of Microphysiological Systems and Organ-on-Chip (SESMOcC), led by researchers from the I3A (Aragon Institute of Engineering Research) and the IIS Aragon (Aragon Health Research Institute), aims to promote the "visibility, development, and consolidation" of these technologies. To learn more about them and the origin and future We have spoken with the president of the new Society, Ignacio Ochoa Garrido, principal investigator of the Tissue Microenvironment group of the aforementioned I3A and IIS Aragón and professor in the Department of Human Anatomy and Histology of the Faculty of Medicine of the Zaragoza's University.

How did SESMOcC come about?

This technology has actually been around for quite a few years. The initial push to raise its international profile began around 2010, and in 2015 a European Union project was launched, funding both us, the Aragon Health Research Institute, and other groups to create a roadmap for Organ-on-a-Chip in Europe. This project led to the creation of the European society, and then, seeing that for the last three or four years more and more people were becoming involved with this technology in Spain, we began to consider the possibility of establishing a Spanish society. Last year, we saw that the society was ready and that there were enough groups to launch it.

What exactly are Organ-on-a-Chip?

It's a technology that aims to replace traditional preclinical models. We've always thought that developing a drug required laboratory tests with basic cell cultures, what's known as petri dishes. Then we had to move on to clinical models, eventually reaching patients. That's the classic model, which has worked very well for decades, but now we're seeing that developing a drug is becoming increasingly difficult, both in terms of cost and time, because the predictive capacity of these models is very limited. What we're doing is trying to better recreate human body tissues, organizing the cells and applying the physical and chemical stimuli that occur in the body so that the cells behave in the same way they do in patients.

In your statement, you mentioned that one of your objectives is to give the sector "greater credibility." What exactly do you mean by that?

The fact is that when we obtain results, we still need to validate them with clinical trials, with patients. That's what we aim for: to generate more and more models that can be compared with the literature and with patients to give greater credibility to the technology and so that it can gradually replace animal experimentation.

Regarding animal experimentation, you were talking about conducting more “ethical” research… is there much greater awareness of this now?

Society needs to understand that animal models are not used arbitrarily, nor because researchers are malicious. It's because, until now, there were no alternatives; the only way to predict the behavior of certain drugs or to assess their efficacy was through animal models. But gradually, as conscious human beings, and knowing that these models can now be replaced by new tools, we have a moral obligation to do so. We must take advantage of these tools to minimize animal experimentation and replace it with models that, in addition to being more ethical, are also more predictive and capable of detecting what will happen in patients.

What are the most immediate goals you have set for yourselves?

The first step is to build a community. We're very pleased to have reached 100 people—researchers and companies—at the Society's first event, but we believe there are even more people working in these technologies or who might become interested. We want to capture their attention through online seminars, news forums, newsletters, and other channels where we explain the advantages of this technology and the research, funding, and entrepreneurial opportunities it generates. One of the things we're most excited about is that three Spanish biotechnology companies were already present at the Congress. We also want to strengthen training for new generations in a technology that is becoming increasingly common in laboratories. And, little by little, we'll begin to engage with regulators, policymakers, and the industry.

Where does Spain stand in Europe?

I believe that, scientifically speaking, we are quite advanced and in a leading position, competing with Switzerland, England, France, Italy, the Netherlands… although the number of companies and funding are somewhat more limited, so we can still improve. There are countries, like the Netherlands, that have invested more than 20 million euros in training the researchers of the future, something we haven't yet achieved in Spain. We need to make Spanish politicians and society understand that this is an investment in the future, in the transition to more ethical research, and in improving the prediction of new drug development, making them much safer, faster, and cheaper. This is supported by Europe, as evidenced by the new trends and projects being generated by the European Commission, which is targeting these technologies for new funding sources.

Regarding training, where should we begin?

The advantage of this technology is that it's not exclusive to one sector, but rather a way of tackling a problem that can be approached from many different fields. It's very multidisciplinary; everyone is welcome here, everyone can contribute. People can come from biomedical engineering, biology, mechanical engineering, mathematics… There are already several postgraduate programs that cover some of these subjects, but one of the things we'd like to propose in the medium to long term is the creation of an official master's program. We're already evaluating this and considering whether it would be offered by a single university or a joint program, because what we are certain of is that it would be important to train a large number of people.

What is the future and the limit of this technology?

The sky's the limit. Right now, we're simulating small organ functions, but we're evolving towards generating much more data, making it increasingly complex, and combining it with each other and with artificial intelligence. It's here to stay.

Source: ConSalud.es