Animal testing is an unnerving concept. Approximately 115 million animals are used for lab experiments across the globe each year. Not only does clinical trials cause harm to animals, but there’s always been possibilities where a treatment was toxic to a furry creature but curing to a human being. Fortunately, there is a disruptive technological advancement that should be directly causing a decrease of that number year by year.
The
WYSS Institute of Harvard are designing and working with “organs on chips” to
replicate organs such as hearts, lungs, livers, and etc. Microfluidics occur inside the chips that emulate certain blood and airflow interacting with each other. By depicting molecular
entities similar to actual human organ structure, scientists and biologists can better
ascertain the performance and safety of new medical treatments better than
animal testing and plastic petri dishes that don’t properly depict the various aspect
of the human body ever could.
A
company called Emulate is working on changing the drug development model as
well. Their vision is even more particular. The biotech startup eventually
wants the medical field to get to a point to where development of medicine can
be personalized for individual people. Medicine targeted peculiarly to match the
chemical composition of patients is a virtuous vision but having USB-sized chips
containing molecular content of particular human beings could reach beyond the
boundaries of ethical medical practices. In the wrong hands of those who want to use the innovative
technology for harm, the cell embodiment process could be used for biological
or chemical weapons.
As
of now though, the “organ on chip” technology is in the hands of very few
entities such as Emulate and the WYSS Institute. The drug development model is
currently being disrupted to be faster and to deter from animal testing. I see
the avoidance of harming animals as a big perk of this avant-garde technology.
Questions:
1.If society got to
the point of your doctor being able to put your organ structure and cells on a
microchip and test drugs before you actually try them, would you?
2.Are there other unethical
possibilities with human cells in microchips besides weapons use implications?
3.What other positive possibilities are there involved with this pioneering technology?
Sources:
-http://www.wired.co.uk/article/geraldine-hamilton-emulate-biotech-organ-chips
-http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/news/Emerging%20technologies%20and%20the%20laworgans-on-chips.pdf
I am impressed about how drug can be tested on chips, and the chips can simulate the human organs!
ReplyDeleteYes, I will 100% agree to test drugs before I try them. But the issue would be the price and time to wait for adverse reactions. Sometimes you cannot really see the adverse reactions until certain conditions(such as pregnant or with other illness). I wonder can chip accelerate the reaction to drugs?
The unethical issues are very broadly. It can be used as personal revenge by checking what drugs that this person is allergic to.
I think this technology can also simulate the future disease that the person would get in future, if the engineers and scientists can find a way to accelerate the simulation.
This is something I never imagined could be possible. To answer your first question, yes I would definitely let my doctor try the microchip technology especially because of how dangerous pharmaceutical medication can be to one's body. I am sure people would find a way to use this method unethically, but I can't think of one at the moment. Yijia made a good point above on how people could use it as a method of revenge, which would make me think twice before trying the microchip. The technology could save many lives, as so many people die from medical drugs every year. This was a great post! Thanks Nathan!
ReplyDeleteI applaud your stance against animal testing and wanting to see a different way of drug testing. Yes, I would allow my doctor to try the chip, like Joshua points out, these Pharma drugs can be vary harmful.
ReplyDeleteYour second question is interesting to me, When I think about unethical decisions, I think about gene splicing in these chips and what doctors could do with that.
interesting topic Nathan