Modeling disease: organ-on-a-chip technologies

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an aggressive type of fatty liver disease that is linked to metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. NASH incidence is rising rapidly and is poised to soon become a huge economic burden. Despite widespread R&D effort, there are currently no drugs available to treat NASH, as many traditional preclinical models fail to predict the efficacy of potential drugs in humans.

Organ-on-a-chip technologies enable us to recreate human physiology and disease in the lab and incorporating these models into drug discovery workflows may increase success and bring much needed drugs to the market more rapidly.

This In Focus, supported by CN Bio, will explore the various preclinical models available for NASH, with a particular focus on organ-on-a-chip technologies.