Cell Cluster Improves Animal Testing Conditions
Cell Cluster Improves Animal Testing Conditions
  • Reporter Lee Seung-Joo
  • 승인 2019.01.05 00:33
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▲Prof. Kim Dong-Sung (MECH)
▲Prof. Kim Dong-Sung (MECH)

At the development stage of any pharmaceutical of cosmetic products, a researcher cannot start experimenting on humans directly. The products must first be tested in cellular level and then on animals for direct effect and possible side effects and then, finally, can be used on human. However, due to the various physiological differences between human and animal, many cases show varying results and recent animal rights issue, animal testing faced many downsides. 

To solve this issue, Professor Kim Dong-Sung and his team has developed a three-dimensional nanofiber microwell platform made to resemble the microenvironment of a human cell by utilizing electroradiation that uses water droplets as a ground electrode. By using this platform, the team coined a three-dimensional cell group that resembles that of human but improved in function from a region exterior of a human body. If such cell clusters can be utilized in pharmaceutical and cosmetic tests, it might enable researchers to certify a product’s true effect more efficiently than the previous animal tests. 

Since the research uses a water droplet which is flexible in both shape and size, the synthesized human cell clusters will be able to reflect more variety of human body characteristics. Prof. Kim exclaimed that “the research has discovered a new pathway that uses the previous microwell to coin artificial human body structures to create high-performing cell clusters.”

Meanwhile this work was published in the International journal ACS Applide Materials and Interfaces of the American Chemical Society and Nov. 7.