At the University of Groningen, the Pharmaceutical Analysis (PA; Prof. Sabeth Verpoorte) and Drug Metabolism and Toxicology (DMT; Prof. Geny Groothuis) groups have joined forces in this project. Research in the PA group is devoted to better understanding of micro- and nanofluidic systems and how they can be applied to chemical and cell biological problems. Research in the DMT group is focused on the development of in vitro systems with human tissue for drug metabolism and toxicology studies. Responding to a societal demand to reduce animal use in drug research, the two groups have worked together since 2006 in an interdisciplinary effort to develop cutting-edge organ-on-a-chip systems. Multi-organ systems incorporating microflows to better represent mammalian physiology for unraveling the complexity of organ interactions ex vivo are a long-term goal. Improved in vitro systems for tissue culture to benchmark bioartificial liver tissue viability and function is the goal in this project.
Key persons involved in the project are:
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