Device to Measure Drug Metabolism in the Liver
September 22, 2015 | Terry Sharrer
Anticancer drugs are metabolized in the liver before they reach the tumor target—thus a need for a means of measuring the supposed effect. To provide this… “[a] microfabricated device developed by the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine is able to analyze the effects of pro-drugs — substances transformed within the liver into therapeutic agents — on cancer cells. The two-chamber microscale platform enables the culture of liver cells called hepatocytes and tumor cells in close proximity and in small amounts of supportive media. The microscale environment leads to the rapid accumulation of greater quantities of the desired metabolite and detection of its toxic effect on cancer cells.” MORE
Image Credit: Shyam Sundhar Bale, Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine