Chip: Your Friendly Drug Tester
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) has developed an amazing technology that tests the effects of drugs on human tissue, using tissue chips, which combine transparent microchips with living human tissue. The tissue mimics human organs (biomimicry just took on a whole new meaning, folks!) and allows scientists to see how the organs might respond to various drugs. Finally, drug trials will have more accurate results for how humans actually respond, AND animals could be phased out of drug testing. A potential win-win. Here’s some more information on tissue chip projects.