Cells on a chip to cut animal tests

Scientists are recreating the human body on a microchip - using clumps of cells from different organs linked by fluid-filled channels - to reduce the amount of animal testing for drugs.

The "human-on-a-chip" mimics the body's physiology on a miniature scale, including how each organ reacts to drugs and other chemicals.

The chips will not be a substitute for extensive clinical trials, or even many animal tests, say the researchers, but they believe they will help identify potentially dangerous drugs early in development.

Michael Schuler, at Cornell University, in New York, built a chip which, among other tissues, carried liver and lung cells. Tests with naphthalene, a chemical found in mothballs, showed that the liver cells broke the chemical down into toxic byproducts that killed some of the lung cells - the same effect seen in people.

Dr Schuler and a colleague, Greg Baxter, have set up a firm, Hurel, to sell the chip.

The chips could be used to see how viruses cause infection and how drugs work, and cells could be given a disease to investigate treatment. "We're not saying we can replace animal studies, we just hope to make them more efficient, and reduce our use of animals," said Dr Schuler.

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