An update on microfluidic multi-organ-on-a-chip systems for reproducing drug pharmacokinetics: the current state-of-the-art

Abstract

Introduction: Advances in the accessibility of manufacturing technologies and iPSC-based modeling have accelerated the overall progress of organs-on-a-chip. Notably, the progress in multi-organ systems is not progressing with equal speed, indicating that there are still major technological barriers to overcome that may include biological relevance, technological usability as well as overall accessibility. Areas covered: We here review the progress in the field of multi-tissue- and body-on-a-chip pre and post- SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and review five selected studies with increasingly complex multi-organ chips aiming at pharmacological studies. Expert opinion: We discuss future and necessary advances in the field of multi-organ chips including how to overcome challenges regarding cell diversity, improved culture conditions, model translatability as well as sensor integrations to enable microsystems to cover organ–organ interactions in not only toxicokinetic but more importantly pharmacodynamic and -kinetic studies.