InSphero and FDA Scientists Publish Benchmark Study for Drug Safety Assessment

Study in a Sentence: Researchers used a scalable human liver microtissue model to accurately predict the drug-induced liver injury concern of 152 FDA-approved drugs, demonstrating promise for the screening of new drug candidates.

Healthy for Humans: The drug development process requires testing to evaluate potential adverse effects, including liver damage. Accurately screening and categorizing drugs based on their liver injury concern is crucial to safely bringing drugs to market, and human-specific nonanimal models like human liver microtissues can better reflect liver structure and function and have the potential to improve early screening of drug candidates.

Redefining Research: Existing models of drug-induced liver injury, including 2D cell culture and animals, are not always predictive of human outcomes. The 3D human liver microtissue used in this study retains the structure and function of human liver, leading to more physiologically relevant data, and it is compatible with large-scale applications, with potential to replace countless animal tests.

If you'd like to learn more about this study, check out this informative video from InSphero!