The Development and Cost-effectiveness Analysis of High Throughput Screening for Drug Candidates Using a Dedicated, Novel Mass Production Microfluidics Technique

During the preclinical drug testing stage, conventional test subjects include animals and cells cultured in a lab, which are costly, and cannot correctly represent human tissue. Therefore, these test subjects may inaccurately predict human response to a drug and may falsely demonstrate a drug as “safe”. Upon public distribution, unexpected side effects may occur, which claim thousands of Canadian patients annually. This preventative phenomenon can cost the healthcare system billions of dollars. We propose large-scale production of human microtissues in order to be used as ideal subjects for screening preclinical drugs. Our objective is to effectively synthesize large sample sizes of 3D multi-tissue systems which can be used to screen multiple drugs in-lab in order to enhance our understanding of human response. Our research will benefit the pharmaceutical industry drug screening process, as well as other potential industries related to cosmetics, food science, and biotechnology.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ian Foulds

Student:

Partner:

The GelMA Company

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia - Okanagan

Program: