Scientists are creating a human "body" as a new way to test drugs and toxic agents, which could replace the use of petri dish and animal testing.
The project is called Advanced Tissue-engineered Human Ectypal Network Analyzer (Athena), and is led by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), according to CNET.
The scientists will create small versions of four artificial organs- liver, heart, lung, and kidney- that can be connected inside a fake torso. The Athena "body" should fit on a desk once all the parts are put together.
"By developing this 'homo minutus,' we are stepping beyond the need for animal or Petri dish testing," said Rashi Iyer, a senior scientist at LANL and leader of Athena. "There are huge benefits in developing drug and toxicity analysis systems that can mimic the response of actual human beings."
Iyer said that about 40 percent of pharmaceutical drugs fail their clinical trials, and there are thousands of chemicals with unknown effects, R & D Magazine reported. Athena is a realistic, quick and cost-effective technology that can conduct accurate screening and offer a greater chance of success in clinical trials.
The project has a budget of $19 million and is supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a subdivision of the Department of Defense. The development will last five years before Athena is complete, CNET reported.
"The ultimate goal is to build a lung that breathes, a heart that pumps, a liver that metabolizes, and a kidney that excretes- all connected by a tubing infrastructure much akin to the way blood vessels connect our organs," Iyer said. "While some skeptics might believe that this is a utopian dream . . . the team is confident that this is indeed achievable."
The lung and kidney are being worked on by Iyer at LANL, while the liver is being developed by Katrin Zeilinger and colleagues at Charite Univeristatsmedizin, Berlin, Germany. The heart is being developed by Professor Kevin Kit Parker at Harvard University. The kidney constructs are being worked on by Shuvo Roy from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and William Fissell from Vanderbilt University, R & D Magazine reported.
John Wikswo, co-principal investigator at Vanderbilt and is building Athena's hardware, will present information about the project's development at the Society of Toxicology meeting in Phoenix this week.
