Shyni Varghese and a lab technician inspect a chip.
Photo Credit
Tibor Nemeth

Better Preclinical Drug Testing and More with Organs-on-Chips

More than 90% of pharmaceuticals fail in clinical trials, despite the fact that by the time a drug is ready to be tested in humans, it’s typically already been studied in Petri dishes and animal models for years. That represents a lot of dead ends and dashed hopes.

A new custom-developed tool, called an organ-on-a-chip, shows potential for making pre-clinical testing more accurate. At Duke, Shyni Varghese, Ph.D., an expert in the new technology, is teaming up with colleagues to assess its potential in evaluating COVID-19 drug candidates.