Stepanov Ivan, Gottshall Noah R, Ahmadianyazdi Alireza, Sinha Daksh, Lockhart Ethan J, Nguyen Tran N H, Hassan Sarmad, Horowitz Lisa F, Yeung Raymond S, Gujral Taranjit S, Folch Albert
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Sci Adv. 2025 May 16;11(20):eads1631. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ads1631. Epub 2025 May 14.
The scarcity of human biopsies available for drug testing is a paramount challenge for developing therapeutics, disease models, and personalized treatments. Microtechnologies that combine the microscale manipulation of tissues and fluids offer the exciting possibility of miniaturizing both disease models and drug testing workflows on scarce human biopsies. Unfortunately, these technologies presently require microfluidic devices or robotic dispensers that are not widely accessible. We have rapidly prototyped an inexpensive platform based on an off-the-shelf robot that can microfluidically manipulate live microtissues into/out of culture plates without using complicated accessories such as microscopes or pneumatic controllers. The robot integrates complex functions with a simple, cost-effective, and compact construction, allowing placement inside a tissue culture hood for sterile workflows. We demonstrated a proof-of-concept cancer drug evaluation workflow of potential clinical utility using patient tumor biopsies with multiple drugs on 384-well plates. Our user-friendly, low-cost platform promises to make drug testing of microtissues broadly accessible to pharmaceutical, clinical, and biological laboratories.
可用于药物测试的人体活检样本稀缺，这是开发治疗方法、疾病模型和个性化治疗所面临的一项首要挑战。能够对组织和液体进行微观尺度操作的微技术为在稀缺的人体活检样本上实现疾病模型和药物测试工作流程的小型化提供了令人兴奋的可能性。不幸的是，目前这些技术需要微流控设备或自动分配器，而这些设备并不广泛可得。我们基于一款现成的机器人快速制作了一个低成本平台，该平台可以在不使用显微镜或气动控制器等复杂配件的情况下，通过微流控方式将活的微组织移入/移出培养板。该机器人将复杂功能与简单、经济高效且紧凑的结构相结合，能够放置在组织培养罩内以实现无菌工作流程。我们展示了一个具有潜在临床应用价值的概念验证癌症药物评估工作流程，该流程使用患者肿瘤活检样本和多种药物在384孔板上进行测试。我们这个用户友好型的低成本平台有望使微组织的药物测试广泛应用于制药、临床和生物实验室。
