How Organ-on-Chip technology can mimic human physiology

After the presentation of the final results of the ORCHID project in Brussels during the FET seminar beginning of this year, managing director of hDMT Janny van den Eijnden-van Raaij was interviewed by the European Commission. In the article, she tells about the lack of models that mimic the human body for drug development, and how Organ-on-Chip technology can provide a solution for this deficit. The EU FET-Open project ORCHID, initiated by the Dutch Organ-on-Chip consortium hDMT, aimed to help Organs-on-Chips to move from the laboratory into real-life medical care.

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Final report ORCHID available

The ORCHID (Organ-on-Chip In Development) project has been finalized. During the final ORCHID meeting in Leiden on 23 September 2019, the European Organ-on-Chip roadmap and other deliverables and milestones of ORCHID were presented to a broad audience of end-users, regulators, clinicians, developers, policymakers and patient representatives.

The final report (click left to download) describes the achievements of ORCHID and refers to the relevant documents that have been delivered during the 2-year ORCHID project.

Publication “Organ-on-chip in development: Towards a roadmap for organs-on-chip”, available

Publication available from the ORCHID project

Mastrangeli, M., Millet, S., ORCHID partners, T. and van den Eijnden-van Raaij, J. (2019) “Organ-on-chip in development: Towards a roadmap for organs-on-chip”, ALTEX – Alternatives to animal experimentation, 36(4), pp. 650-668. doi: 10.14573/altex.1908271.

Publications available

Two publications from the ORCHID project are now online available.

Impact of organ-on-a-chip technology on pharmaceutical R&D costs – DOI 10.1016/j.drudis.2019.06.003

Organ-on-Chip In Development: Building Blocks for a European Organ-on-Chip Roadmap – DOI 10.14573/altex.1905221

Press release: European Organ-on-Chip Society open for active membership

The founding phase is complete: the European Organ-on-Chip Society (EUROoCS) is now welcoming members to join. The annual conference, held this year in Graz (Austria), saw launch of the community website and the start of its availability as an information resource. (more…)

ORCHID roadmap report handed over to representatives of IMI and ECSEL Joint Undertakings

On the 28th of March representatives from the ECSEL JU and IMI Joint undertakings met at their headquarters in Brussels to discuss topics of mutual interest. ECSEL Joint Undertaking is public-private partnership, funding innovation in electronic components and systems, while IMI is funding health research and innovation.

The representatives are highly interested in new technologies that can improve the efficiency of drug development. One of these is Organs-on-Chip technology. The progress of these technologies and their role in healthcare is closely monitored by IMI and ECSEL.
For the ORCHID representatives at the meeting it was a great opportunity to present the ORCHID interim report to Bert de Colvenaer (CEO of ECSEL) and Pierre Meulien (executive director of IMI).

Figure: Ronald Dekker (TU Delft) presents the ORCHID report to Bert de Colvenaer (left) and Pierre Meulien (right).

Impression of the ORCHID Strategy workshop

Following up on the ORCHID Vision workshop, the ORCHID Strategy workshop was held in Leiden, the Netherlands on 17 January 2019. 32 experts from academia, innovation hubs, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, patient organizations, ethics school, biotech companies and regulatory agencies attended the workshop. They represented developers, end users and regulators in the Organ-on-Chip (OoC) field in Europe. The workshop was organized by Janny van den Eijnden-van Raaij from hDMT (work package leader Roadmap) and chaired by Christine Mummery from LUMC (coordinator). (more…)

Questionnaire for stakeholders: Training needs of the next generation of researchers and technicians in OoC field

Within the ORCHID project, the main goal is to create a roadmap for organ-on-chip technology and to build a network of all relevant stakeholders in this promising innovative field.

By identifying you as a stakeholder, we would like to draw your attention concerning the training needs of the next generation of researchers and technicians in the Organ-on-a-chip field. We invite you to give us your opinion on this by answering this 15 minute questionnaire.

Feel free to disseminate this questionnaire within your network of interested researchers in universities, research institutes, industries, hospitals and regulatory bodies so that they could share their views too. Thank you very much for your contribution.

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ORCHID interim roadmap report

The ORCHID team was proud to present the first interim roadmap report entitled: ‘Organ-on-Chip in Development: Towards a European roadmap for Organ-on-Chip’ during the International Organ-on-Chip Symposium on November 8-9 2018 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

This report surveys the current landscape in the research, development, applications and market opportunities for Organ-on-Chip devices to establish the pillars of a European OoC ecosystem. Based on a bibliometric study, a market analysis, expert interviews, and panel discussions held at the ORCHID Vision Workshop (Stuttgart, 23 May 2018), this report outlines presently unmet needs, key challenges, barriers and perspectives of the field, and finally proposes recommendations towards the definition of a European roadmap that could render OoC systems (OoCs) realistic models of human (patho)physiology in the near future. For a the report click here.

ORCHID Strategy Workshop January 2019

During the next ORCHID phase we will specify the goals and milestones of the roadmap and define the underlying pathways to reach these goals. For that reason we will organize another ORCHID workshop, the ORCHID Strategy Workshop, and invite a small group of experts from academia, industry, patient organizations, regulatory bodies and medical centers (on invitation only).