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 From Chips in Organs to Organ- on-chip: A Potential Alternative to Animal Testing
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  Ms. Nimisha Roy*
Email: rss2017505@iiita.ac.in
In 2006, the Northwick drug trial disaster shook the world. In this tragedy, that came to be known as “the Elephant Man trial”,
six volunteers took the drug TGN1412 in the Northwick Park hospital in London. After only a few hours these volunteers started exhibiting severe organ failure and swelling in the brain. One volunteer lost his toes and fingers. As one of the worst repercussions of this drug, the volunteers became more susceptible to various cancers and autoimmune diseases. The drug had earlier shown excellent results in monkey models but was clearly not safe for humans. In 2018 alone, 13 drugs were withdrawn in the USA, during various stages of clinical trials, for similar reasons. But no matter what the reason may be, drug failures are expensive both in terms of money and the number of precious lives harmed.
For over half a century, animals like rats, mice, rabbits, dogs, and monkeys have been exploited for various laboratory procedures especially drug testing. While these animal models are a fair representation of the complex biological systems, they fail to reproduce the response that a drug would illicit inside the human body. Also, the animal models are not very trustworthy when the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of a drug is concerned. The ethical aspects associated with animal testing is something that has often been compromised for our selfish motives. But let us not forget what Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Then, what can we as researchers do to tackle this large issue and
 * Ms. Nimisha Roy, PhD Scholar from Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, is pursuing her research on “Liver-on-Chip”. Her popular science story entitled “From Chips in Organs to Organ-on- Chip: A Potential Alternative to Animal Testing” has been selected for AWSAR Award.rd.



























































































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