Can test drugs on ‘humans’ without risk, and study what drives diseases

• Device can manipulate which organ is driving a disease to study its downstream effects
• Can serve as intermediate step between animal studies and clinical trials to test new drugs
• ‘We wanted to make it as easy as using a smartphone’

CHICAGO --- Imagine a device smaller than a toddler’s shoebox that can simulate any human disease in multiple organs or test new drugs without ever entering — or harming — the body.
Scientists at Northwestern University have developed this new technology — called Lattice — to study interactions between up to eight unique organ tissue cultures (cells from a human organ) for extended periods of time to replicate how actual organs will respond. It is a major advancement from current in vitro systems, which can only study two cell cultures simultaneously.
The goal is to simulate what happens inside the body to analyze, for example, how obesity might affect a particular disease; how women metabolize drugs differently than men; or what might be initially driving a disease that eventually impacts multiple organs.
“When something’s happening in the body, we don’t know exactly who’s talking to whom,” said lead scientist Julie Kim, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Currently, scientists use dishes that have one or two cell types, and then do in-depth research and analysis, but Lattice provides a huge advancement. This platform is much better suited to mimic what’s happening in the body, because it can simulate so many organs at once.”
This content is taken from Northwestern University

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"Human disease simulator lets scientists choose their own adventure", MachPrinciple, October 10, 2023, https://machprinciple.com/post/Human-disease-simulator-lets-scientists-choose-their-own-adventure