The University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute (UPDDI) has formed a team that includes the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MIRM) to create the University of Pittsburgh Tissue Chip Testing Center (UP-TCTC). We will leverage our integrated drug development expertise, established GLP-like infrastructure, and a pioneering MPS database (MPS-Db) to join the consortium of TC developers, TC centers, industry representatives, and the NIH to test and characterize the performance of TC organ systems to guide optimal application in drug safety and efficacy testing. We will employ a strategy of scheduled communication and a defined and agreed upon action plan to establish and maintain an effective collaboration with the TC consortium members and NCATS outlining the procedures for disseminating information regarding project implementation and progress. We will work with the consortium to select the TC platforms to be tested and design the overall strategy regarding reference compound set(s), testing concentrations, assay measurements, and model metrics. Working with the individual TC developers, we will establish Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for their specific platform detailing the assembly (if necessary) and implementation of the systems as well as defining assay performance metrics. We will test the designated compound sets on multiple platforms in parallel to facilitate testing 12 organ platforms in the 2-year time frame. All results will be uploaded into our existing microphysiologial systems database (MPS-Db) for statistical analysis and comparison with reference datasets provided by the developers. The results will be made available first to the TC developer, and then to the consortium members via, the internet.
Much progress has been made in the development of microphysiological systems (MPS) human organ models by the NIH/NCATS Tissue Chip Consortium to a stage where first and now second generation ?tissue chips? (TCs) are now functional. These systems promise to be exceptionally informative, and it is envisioned that these devices could become standard methodology for drug toxicity and efficacy testing. The goal of this project is to provide an independent validation of the robustness of TCs developed by NIH/NCATS Tissue Chip Consortium.
