Trends in organ-on-a-chip for pharmacological analysis

Developing accurate and reliable new models that can better predict clinical outcomes has become an urgent need to drive drug development due to the limited predictability of traditional models for human responses. Organ-on-a-chip can mimic the structure, function and microenvironment of human tissues and organs, showing tremendous potential for drug discovery and development. In this review, we focused on the advancement of organ-on-a-chip platform in pharmacological analysis and summarized from three aspects, including the overall strategy of model design, the integration of advanced technologies and research algorithms, and the extensive applications in drug discovery, drug screening, drug efficacy and safety evaluate, and precision medicine. We hope that this review provides new insights into key pathological mechanisms revealed, therapeutic biomarkers and targets found, more accurate prediction of drug action in the human body, and accelerated drug development process.