Innovations in the medical field never stop. Some faster, some slower, they are all inexorable. Today a device developed by a team of researchers from Northwestern University promises a new qualitative leap in drug testing.
With the ability to simulate the interaction of a drug with eight organs simultaneously, Lattice (this is the curious name of the device) promises to refine the precision and effectiveness of pre-clinical tests like never before. What does this translate into? Safer drugs and reduced development times. The era of multi-organ simulation has begun.
The innovation behind Lattice
The pharmaceutical industry has always faced significant challenges in drug development and testing. The need to deeply understand how a medicine interacts with the human body is fundamental, but traditional testing methods, often based on animal models, have clear limitations. Think about it, only the 10% of drugs that enter clinical trials actually reach the market. Most fail due to ineffectiveness or intolerable side effects – failures that represent not only an economic loss, but also a delay in providing potentially life-saving care.
Lattice can affect precisely this limit. It is not a simple tool: it is an advanced platform that simulates the interaction of a drug with different human organs. Hannes Campo, first author of the research on the device (I link it to you here), highlighted the importance of Lattice quite eloquently.
This is the most faithful thing at the moment in replicating the dynamics of the human body outside the human body.
A bold statement, but one that is grounded in the technology behind Lattice. But how does it work? Let's go in order.
A “body in a box” for drug testing
The device, about the size of a small shoe box, contains eight small vessels connected by channels. These vessels can be filled with tissue samples, diseased cells, drug candidates and more. Connecting these "wells" there are channels, which allow the flow of a liquid called "media", which acts as blood in a circulatory flow. This “media” acts as a carrier, carrying substances from one well to another, thus simulating how a drug or substance would move and interact in the human body.
For example, if a drug is metabolized by the liver, researchers may want to see how the resulting metabolites affect other organs. With Lattice, they can place a sample of liver tissue in one well and other tissue in adjacent wells, and then observe the interactions.
In summary, an advantageous intermediate step between animal studies and clinical trials.
A disease simulator
In addition to drug testing, Lattice has the potential to be used when researchers try to understand a disease and how it spreads.
Currently, the Northwestern lab is using Lattice to study polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), an incurable hormonal disorder that is a leading cause of infertility. Good luck, guys: for you and for us too.
