Advanced bioengineering technologies for preclinical research

ABSTRACT

Current in vitro practices must overcome important challenges to compare favorably with human studies. The limited applicability of conventional in vitro assays and strategies can be explained by the fact that standard approaches do not enable recapitulation of the complexity of human tissues and physiological functions. To address this challenge, novel bioengineering tools, techniques and technologies are rapidly emerging to advance current fundamental knowledge and innovate in vitro practices. For example, organs-on-a-chip have recently appeared as a small-scale solution to overcome the transability, financial and ethical concerns associated with animal studies in drug discovery and development. In parallel, biomimetic interfaces are increasingly recapitulating 3D structures with tissue-like dynamic properties to allow in-depth investigation of disease mechanisms. This review aims at highlighting current bioengineering approaches poised to address the shortcomings of conventional in vitro research practices towards the generation of more effective solutions for improving human health.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• In vitro assays
• organoids
• spheroids
• microtissues
• bioprinting
• organs-on-a-chip
• biomimetic models
• biosensors

Acknowledgments

EM acknowledges funding by European Union’s Horizon 2020 ERC grant agreement No 647863 (COMIET), the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya (2017-SGR-1079), and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (TEC2017-83716-C2-1-R) and the Severo Ochoa Program for Centers of Excellence in R&D 2016-2019. The results presented here reflect only the views of the authors; the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. JPS and FV acknowledge funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through the Discovery Grant. JPS also acknowledges financial support by the University of Ottawa Seed Funding Opportunity Grant. The authors acknowledge Alexander Steeves for his help with the graphical abstract.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya [2017-SGR-1079];H2020 European Research Council [647863];NSERC Discovery Grant [RGPIN-2017-04593];NSERC Discovery Grant [RGPIN 402441-2013];Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [Severo Ochoa Program for Centers of Excellence in,TEC2017-83716-C2-1-R];University of Ottawa [RDP 2017-01].