Construction of Organs-on-a-Chip based in vitro Physiological Functional Models and Disease Models

Organ-on-a-Chip is a three-dimensional microphysiological system constructed using microfluidic technology and containing human living cells. It can highly simulate the key structures and functions of human organs in vitro, and has become a disruptive frontier technology platform in the fields of precision medicine and drug evaluation. This report will systematically introduce the core applications and latest advances of organ-on-a-chip in precision medicine and drug evaluation. In terms of drug evaluation, our team has achieved several landmark breakthroughs: In 2023, Hengrui Medicine’s HRS-1893 became the first new drug in China to receive IND approval based on cardiac organ-on-a-chip data; liver-on-a-chip demonstrated over 90% sensitivity in predicting drug hepatotoxicity, significantly outperforming animal models; the first national standard for organ chips, General Technical Requirements for Skin-on-a-Chip, has been officially released; our team, in collaboration with the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) and the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE), is actively advancing methodological validation and regulatory standards research for organoids and organ-on-a-chip. In addition, the report will cover cutting-edge directions such as multi-organ chip interaction models, the integration of organ-on-a-chip with artificial intelligence, and space organ-on-a-chip, showcasing the broad prospects of organ-on-a-chip technology from basic research to clinical translation, providing a fully humanized, high-fidelity in vitro evaluation paradigm for precision clinical diagnosis and treatment as well as new drug development.

Dr. Zaozao Chen, Vice Dean of the Organ-on-a-Chip Institute at Southeast University, and researcher/professor at the State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering and School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering. He is one of the 24 Executive Directors of the International Microphysiological Systems Society (iMPSS). With over ten years of research in human organ-on-a-chip at the US MPS Consortium and the State Key Lab, he has developed more than 40 organ-on-a-chip-based physiological/pathological models and AI systems. He has published over 100 SCI/EI papers in journals including Nature Cell Biology, Nature Communications, Biomaterials, and Lab Chip.

Current positions include Secretary-General of the Organoid and Organ-on-a-Chip Branch of the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering, Standing Committee Member and Deputy Secretary-General of the Organoid and Organ-on-a-Chip Toxicology Committee of the Chinese Society of Toxicology, and Standing Committee Member of the Organoid and Organ-on-a-Chip Committee of Jiangsu Research Hospital Association.

He has led over ten major national projects, including key projects under the National Key R&D Program, the National Manned Spaceflight Project, and the National Natural Science Foundation. He contributed to establishing the first and second national standards for organ chips globally and directly supported the first new drug IND application in China based on organoids and organ chips (Hengrui HRS-1893). His honors include the First Prize of the National Disruptive Innovation Technology Competition (2022), Top Ten Advances in Life Sciences of China (2023), Huang Jiasi Biomedical Engineering Award (2022-2023), China Patent Excellence Award (2023), and Top Ten Advances in Jiangsu Industry (2022, 2025).