Tag Archives: PROOF Centre of Excellence

University of British Columbia (Canada) discovers the ‘organ-on-a-chip’ and plans to host a July 2014 workshop

Leave a reply

My latest piece about an ‘organ-on-a-chip’ project was a July 26, 2012 posting titled Organ chips for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) featuring the Wyss Institute (which pops up again in the latest news I have from the University of British Columbia [UBC; located in Vancouver, Canada)]). First, here’s more about that 2012 announcement,,

The Wyss Institute will receive up to  $37M US for a project that integrates ten different organ-on-a-chip projects into one system. From the July 24, 2012 news release on EurekAlert,

With this new DARPA funding, Institute researchers and a multidisciplinary team of collaborators seek to build 10 different human organs-on-chips, to link them together to more closely mimic whole body physiology, and to engineer an automated instrument that will control fluid flow and cell viability while permitting real-time analysis of complex biochemical functions. As an accurate alternative to traditional animal testing models that often fail to predict human responses, this instrumented “human-on-a-chip” will be used to rapidly assess responses to new drug candidates, providing critical information on their safety and efficacy.

…

This unique platform could help ensure that safe and effective therapeutics are identified sooner, and ineffective or toxic ones are rejected early in the development process. As a result, the quality and quantity of new drugs moving successfully through the pipeline and into the clinic may be increased, regulatory decision-making could be better informed, and patient outcomes could be improved.

Jesse Goodman, FDA Chief Scientist and Deputy Commissioner for Science and Public Health, commented that the automated human-on-chip instrument being developed “has the potential to be a better model for determining human adverse responses. FDA looks forward to working with the Wyss Institute in its development of this model that may ultimately be used in therapeutic development.”

…

It’s nice to see that there’s interest in this area of research at UBC. From the Dec. 30, 2013 UBC news release by Gian-Paolo Mendoza which describes James Feng’s (professor in biological and chemical engineering) interest in the future possibilities offered by ‘organ-on-a-chip’ research,

“The potential is tremendous,” says Feng. “The main impact of organs grown this way will be on the design of drugs; the understanding of the pathological processes.”

Dr. Feng’s group carries out research in three broad areas: mechanics of biological cells and tissues, interfacial fluid dynamics, and mechanics and rheology of complex fluids.

The group has an inter-disciplinary flavour–crosscutting applied mathematics, cell biology, soft-matter physics and chemical and biomedical engineering—that is well-suited for exploring this burgeoning technology.

…

Feng cites a Harvard study [Ed. Note: This is the work being done at the Wyss Institute] using a small silicon device that holds a thin layer of real cell membranes capable of producing motion similar to the heaving and breathing of a lung.

Organ models designed this way have the potential to be more accurate in drug and treatment trials, says Feng, as they can better mimic the functions of human organs, as opposed to animal models which are the current research standard.

“It’s more controlled and you can simplify the process much faster,” said Feng.

“Harvard researchers also injected drugs into their chip model to see how it changed its behaviour and to see the tissue’s reaction to mechanical or chemical disturbance,” he added.

“It’s very important for drug design and discovery and the pharmaceutical industry would be tremendously interested in that.”

In addition, organs on a chip present a less controversial option for organ model testing compared to stem cell research. According to Feng, this is because their ultimate goals are very different from each other.

“The research that tried to grow organs directly from stem cells is aiming for eventually implantable organs,” he said. “The idea of making the chip is to work toward replacing animal models, so as to be more accurate and realistic like human organs. While the ability to replicate a complex human organ function remains far off, the direction appeals to anyone who is hoping to reduce the use of animals in research.”

Here’s the ‘lung-on-a-chip’ video the Wyss Institute has produced,

By contrast with ‘organ-on-a-chip’, the ‘lab-on-a-chip’ does not simulate the action of organs responding to various experimental therapeutic measures but makes standard testing and diagnostic procedures, such as blood tests, much faster, cheaper, and, in some cases, much less invasive as per my February 15, 2011 posting  which included some information about a local (Vancouver, Canada) project, the PROOF.(Prevention of Organ Failure) Centre.

The ‘organ-on-a-chip’ will help make clinical trials easier and faster according to Feng (from the news release),

Feng says this kind of organ testing offers the possibility of greatly reducing cost and time required for clinical trials.

“By using computer simulations we can generate results and insights, and run virtual tests much more easily and quickly,” he says.

“We can test maybe hundreds or thousands of designs of organ chips to be able to tell you whether you should try those ten designs instead of the hundreds one by one.”

Feng, who has a background in aerospace engineering, says this new bio-technology has the potential to transform the development of artificial organs and drugs the way computer simulations have replaced the use of wind tunnels for designing aircrafts.

“That used to be the dominant mode of designing crafts,” he said, “but that’s being replaced by online computer simulations because we understand the principles of aerodynamics so well.”

There’s also recognition that UBC is a little late to the ‘party’,

While UBC’s efforts in the field are in the early stages, Feng is reaching out to researchers from other backgrounds. He will be inviting leading scientists to UBC in July 2014 for a workshop that will centre on the growth of artificial organs and computer simulations. He is also exploring ideas of his own.

“I have a collaboration with an engineering colleague on how to use the microfluidic chip, the technology used to emulate the lung in the Harvard study, as a way of measuring malaria-infected red cells,” he said, suggesting that this is just one of the countless ways this new technology could be used to fuel future innovation.

And since it’s Friday (Jan. 3, 2014), I thought it was time for a music video, and Pink’s ‘Let’s get the party started’ seems to fit the bill,,

Have a good first weekend of the year 2014!

Diagnostics on a credit card?

1 Reply

Diagnostic equipment keeps getting smaller with the latest being the size of a credit card (more or less). It’s called an ‘mChip’ and can be used to diagnose either HIV or syphillis. From the August 2, 2011 article by Ariel Schwartz on Fast Company,

If you were concerned you had HIV (and lived in America), it would be easy enough to get some blood drawn at a clinic near your house, and wait a few days (or even hours) for the results. But in Africa, many clinics and hospitals have to send out blood samples to a national lab. It’s a process that can take weeks, and patients in remote areas sometimes don’t even bother to make the trek back to the clinic to get results. On a continent with a rampant HIV epidemic, this is a big problem. But Columbia University researchers have a partial solution–a $1 plastic chip that can diagnose HIV and syphilis in 15 minutes.

The “mChip”, a credit-card-sized piece of plastic that is produced using a plastic injection molding process, tests for multiple diseases with just one pinprick of blood.

The international team working on this project was led by professor of bioengineering at Columbia University, Samuel Sia. Field testing of the mChip took place in Rwanda. GrrlScientist in her August 3, 2011 posting (at the Guardian Science blogs site) offers more technical details,

“The microfluidic design is very simple”, said Dr Sia. “It’s essentially a .. linear channel that’s been looped around in various ways.”

… This credit card-sized cassette is manufactured from plastic and each mChip cassette can test seven samples (one per channel), and requires no moving parts, electricity or external instrumentation. Instead, it has small holes moulded into the plastic so reagent-loaded tubes can be attached. …

The principles for how the mChip work are well known, straightforward and, quite frankly, beautiful.

The mChip can be used for other diagnostic tests. A prostate cancer testing mChip has already been approved for use and other tests are being developed as well.

Sia’s team is not the only one working on faster, cheaper, more reliable diagnostic tests. A team at the University of Georgia (US)  has just published research about their flu detection test (from the August 3, 2011 news item on Nanowerk),

A new detection method developed at the University of Georgia and detailed in the August edition of the journal Analyst (“One-step assay for detecting influenza virus using dynamic light scattering and gold nanoparticles”), however, offers the best of both worlds. By coating gold nanoparticles with antibodies that bind to specific strains of the flu virus and then measuring how the particles scatter laser light, the technology can detect influenza in minutes at a cost of only a fraction of a penny per exam.

“We’ve known for a long time that you can use antibodies to capture viruses and that nanoparticles have different traits based on their size,” said study co-author Ralph Tripp, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Vaccine Development in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine. “What we’ve done is combine the two to create a diagnostic test that is rapid and highly sensitive.”

Sia’s team seems to have worked on both the test and diagnostic device whereas some teams like the one in Georgia focus on tests or like the team at Stanford (mentioned in my March 1, 2011 posting about their nanoLAB) focus on the device.

Not all of these new handheld diagnostic tools and tests are designed for disease identification. Argento (mentioned in my February 15, 2011 posting) is being used by UK Sport to assist their elite athletes prior to the 2012 Olympics.  Locally, i.e., in Vancouver, there’s a team at St. Paul’s Hospital, PROOF (mentioned in my Feb. 15, 2011 posting), working on a test that would eliminate the need for monthly biopsies for patients who have received kidney transplants.

Argento, nano, and PROOF

3 Replies

When the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held its 2004 annual meeting in Seattle, I read the abstract for a presentation about making diagnoses from saliva. Although I never did make it to the presentation, I remained fascinated by the idea especially as it seemed to promise the end of blood tests and urine samples.  Well, the end is not quite in sight yet but a handheld diagnostic device that can make a diagnosis from a single sample of blood, urine, or saliva (!) is being made available to elite UK athletes. From the Dec. 9, 2010 news release,

A new hand-held medical device will help UK athletes reach the top of their game when preparing for upcoming sporting competitions. UK Sport, the UK’s high performance sports agency, has reached an agreement to become the first organisation to use cutting edge technology developed by Argento Diagnostics to improve training programmes for athletes.

Elite athletes will be able to monitor various proteins which reveal details about the condition of the body – known as biomarkers – before, during and after training sessions. These biomarkers can give a clear indication of their physical health and the effectiveness of a particular training programme. Everyone reacts differently to training, so understanding how activities affect the body helps ensure that athletes follow the best programmes for them and avoid injury. This is particularly important for elite level athletes, where small changes in fitness can mean the difference between success and failure.

I’m willing to bet that this initiative has something to do with the 2012 Olympic Summer Games being held in London. Still, I’m more interested in the device itself and how nanotechnology enables it (from the news release),

Argento’s portable device uses nanotechnology to analyse the sample. The sample is mixed with silver nanoparticles coated with a binding unit, an antibody, against a specific biological compound, the biomarker, which is indicative of the condition being tested for. If the biomarker is present the silver nanoparticles will stick to magnetic beads with the biomarkers sandwiched in-between.

Magnets pull these compounds into the measurement zone, where the silver nanoparticles are dislodged off, drawn down to the sensor and measured. The number of nanoparticles measured by the sensor will be directly proportional to the expressed amount of biomarker. The device can therefore quickly analyse the biomarker level and, using a computer programme, summarise it in a meaningful way on an on-screen readout.

I did manage to get some more information about the device from Argento’s company website,

For the first time ever, utilising the Argento technology we will be able to offer fully quantitative analysis of multiple analytes from a single sample in a truly portable handheld device which adds the benefits of modern mobile phone, WiFi and Bluetooth technology to store and communicate the results of the tests to maximise the impact and efficiency of testing.

Unfortunately, I can’t find any information about precisely how the samples are conveyed to the device for diagnostic purposes, i.e., do you spit on it, do you sprinkle it with urine, or do you stab yourself and dip the device into your blood? Yes, I suspect that medical professionals will be drawing blood or scraping your mouth with a Q-tip or getting you to donate a urine sample in the usual way and that somehow this sample  is conveyed to the device which will, an unspecified amount of time later, provide a readout. I just wish the people who put together the news release and information materials on the company’s website (BTW, the company is a spin-off from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory) had thought to add these details.

Closer to home, the PROOF (Prevention of Organ Failure) Centre of Excellence, located in Vancouver, Canada, is working on a type of test that could conceivably extend the use of devices such as Argento beyond elite athletes. The PROOF team is working on a test for individuals who have received a transplant.  If you get a new organ such as a kidney, a biopsy is required on a monthly basis for diagnostic purposes. The new PROOF test would be much less invasive, much faster and based on biomarkers, just like the tests that can be run on the Argento device. As far as I understand, the team is currently searching for capital to further develop their biomarker tests.