New Drug Toxicity Chip

The NIH, FDA, and DARPA are teaming up to develop a chip to test drug toxicities as one of the first projects of the NIH's new translational research center.

Written byJef Akst

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) plans to spend up to $140 million over 5 years to develop, in partnership with the US Food and Drug Administration and DARPA, a chip that can predict drug toxicities. The chip, which is to be one of the first projects undertaken by the NIH's proposed National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), will be “an in vitro platform of human tissue constructs that accurately predicts the safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics of drug/vaccine candidates prior to their first use in man,” according to the DARPA call for research proposals. It should integrate the responses of different human cell types, grown in three dimensions, to represent a more complete physiological system than existing toxicity testing techniques, NIH Director Francis Collins ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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