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UNAM Publishes First Latin American Liver-on-Chip to Advance Drug Testing

UNAM published an accessible PDMS functionalization protocol that sustains hepatic cell cultures for weeks, inviting replication by other labs.

Overview

  • The microfluidic device replicates key liver functions for initial evaluation of medicines with functionality comparable to platforms used in the United States and Europe.
  • Findings and methods appear in Advanced Healthcare Materials in a paper detailing ozone and Sulfo-SANPAH treatment for biomimetic long-term cultures.
  • The team solved persistent adhesion and viability problems in PDMS chips, maintaining functional cell cultures for several weeks after iterative testing.
  • The project was led by first author Mitzi Pérez Calixto with a multidisciplinary team and received support from SECIHTI, postdoctoral funding, and a Fulbright fellowship.
  • Researchers report collaborations to build lung- and kidney-on-chip models and plan a fatty-liver variant, noting regulatory moves that could reduce animal testing later this decade.