Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUmR81-DQm_/

Cancer research may be entering a new, animal-free era thanks to a novel organ-on-a-chip platform that mimics how human tumors behave. Nanoscientists at the University of Arizona have developed this tumor micro-environment and utilized it for testing the effects of radiation therapy on lung cancer. They report the result in he journal iScience.

Their technology is termed ASTEROIDS which is short for Apparatus to Simulate Tumor Environment and Reproduce Organs in an Interactive and Dynamic System. This system mimics the human tumor microenvironment including blood-flow forces, cell-to-cell communication, immune interactions, and mechanical stress. It accurately reproduces how tumors respond to treatment and offers a more human-relevant method for testing cancer therapies.

This study focused on lung cancer, but the ASTEROIDS platform can be adapted to any solid tumor. It supports the tenants of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 which encourages reducing animal testing in favor of human-based lab models.

Though used to test radiation therapy in this study, ASTEROIDS will also turbocharge drug development and improve how well lab testing can predict therapy outcomes……someday soon.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-3d-chip-platform-enables-animal.html

https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)02497-6?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2589004225024976?showall=true

#cancer #radiation #testing #animals #organonchip