Engineering challenges in microphysiological systems

It is anticipated that, by further overcoming several major challenges associated with building the microphysiological systems, they will eventually find widespread biomedical applications across a variety of fields spanning from basic cell biology to drug development. Microphysiological systems are emerging models of human physiology with broad applications in biomedicine, which are yet associated with several major engineering challenges that need to be addressed.

In humans, tissues and organs are made of hierarchically assembled structures of multiple compositions to achieve biological functions. The different tissues and organs are then organized in a specific order enabled by a circuitry of vascular network, further achieving physiological interactions. On the one hand, many of these complex elements cannot be readily reproduced on the conventional planar, static cell culture systems already used in biology and medicine for over a century [1]. On the other hand, while preclinical animal models are both biologically and physiologically capable, their relevancy to the human system remains questionable, often leading to inaccurate clinical translation of assay results [2].