In 2014, NIH funded 11 institutions to begin the second phase of the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program, designed to integrate the chip devices into a full body system to evaluate drugs and diseases. Funded scientists are collaborating to combine tissue chips into an integrated system that can mimic the complex functions of the human body.

Several teams of scientists at different institutions are working together to ensure that their organ systems will function in tandem with one another. For example, one collaborative effort involving NIH-funded researchers will share resources and expertise for the heart, blood vessel (vascular) and liver tissue chips. Another NIH-funded team will integrate the kidney, liver, gastrointestinal and neural toxicity tissue chips. Two more project teams funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University — will work with NIH-funded researchers to develop platforms that mimic the human body’s natural environment and that can support 10 organ systems. 

In 2014, NIH funded 11 institutions to begin the second phase of the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program, designed to integrate the chip devices into a full body system to evaluate drugs and diseases. Funded scientists are collaborating to combine tissue chips into an integrated system that can mimic the complex functions of the human body.

Several teams of scientists at different institutions are working together to ensure that their organ systems will function in tandem with one another. For example, one collaborative effort involving NIH-funded researchers will share resources and expertise for the heart, blood vessel (vascular) and liver tissue chips. Another NIH-funded team will integrate the kidney, liver, gastrointestinal and neural toxicity tissue chips. Two more project teams funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University — will work with NIH-funded researchers to develop platforms that mimic the human body’s natural environment and that can support 10 organ systems.

Click on the links below to learn more about the 2014 awarded projects:

Columbia University, New York

Integrated Heart-Liver-Vascular Systems for Drug Testing in Human Health and Disease*

Principal Investigator: Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-EB-017103-03

*Project co-funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Circulatory System and Integrated Muscle Tissue for Drug and Tissue Toxicity

Principal Investigator:  George A. Truskey, Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000505-03

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Human Cardiopulmonary System on a Chip

Principal Investigator: Kevin K. Parker, Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000522-03

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

All-Human Microphysical Model of Metastasis Therapy*

Principal Investigator: Linda Griffith, Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000496-03

*Project co-funded by the National Cancer Institute.

Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell and Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Models for Predictive Neural Toxicity and Teratogenicity

Principal Investigator: James A. Thomson, V.M.D., Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000506-03

Northwestern University, Chicago

Ex Vivo Female Reproductive Tract Integration in a 3-D Microphysiologic System*

Principal Investigator: Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-001207-03

*Project co-funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health.

University of California, Berkeley

Disease-Specific Integrated Microphysiological Human Tissue Models

Principal Investigator: Kevin E. Healy, Ph.D., and Luke P. Lee, Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000487-03

University of Pittsburgh

A 3-D Biomimetic Liver Sinusoid Construct for Predicting Physiology and Toxicity

Principal Investigator: D. Lansing Taylor, Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000503-03

University of Washington, Seattle

A Tissue-Engineered Human Kidney Microphysiological System

Principal Investigator: Jonathan Himmelfarb, M.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000504-03

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

Neurovascular Unit on a Chip: Chemical Communication, Drug and Toxin Responses

Principal Investigators: John P. Wikswo, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University; Damir Janigro, Ph.D., Cleveland Clinic; Donna J. Webb, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University; Kevin Niswender, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000491-03

Washington University in St. Louis

An Integrated In Vitro Model of Perfused Tumor and Cardiac Tissue

Principal Investigator: Steven C. George, M.D., Ph.D. 
Grant Number: 4-UH3-TR-000481-03