The FORTE co-operation project BodyTox deals with a new method for the risk assessment of chemical toxins. A model of human tissue is being used. The aim of the BodyTox project, which was launched in February 2023, is to use a body-on-a-chip method to simulate the absorption of hazardous chemical substances and better assess the risk of possible exposure. Under the leadership of the TU Wien and together with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Traumatology, Denz BIO-Medical und Organo Therapeutics our Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Precision Medicine COREMED aims to develop a platform that can be used to assess the risk of hazardous substances. The core technology used in the BodyTox project will be the so-called body-on-a-chip method.
Body-on-a-chip means that by using human 3D mini-organs (organoids) grown in the laboratory, which are connected to each other via nutrient exchange and small channels (microfluidics), a human organism can be replicated in miniature. This technology is to be used to assess the risk of hazardous substances, in particular neurotoxins, on the human body.
New technology for measuring toxicity
Until now, standardised long-term and short-term studies on the uptake and toxicity of certain hazardous substances have been largely lacking, making it extremely difficult to reliably assess risks based on the existing heterogeneous data landscape. "The BodyTox consortium will now develop the first body-on-a-chip for neurotoxin studies that is truly suitable for this purpose and enables individualised and non-invasive organ-specific read-out," reports Assistant Professor and Assistant Director at the Institute COREMED, Petra Kotzbeck.
She continues: "The body-on-a-chip planned as part of BodyTox will differ significantly in technological terms from the systems that are currently state of the art." To date, there are no multi-fabric models with integrated fluid handling and microsensor technology for neurotoxicity studies.
- Further information on the FORTE BodyTox project