Microphysiological Systems: What It Takes For Community Adoption

Microphysiological systems (MPS) are promising in vitro tools which could substantially improve the drug development process, particularly for underserved patient populations such as those with rare diseases, neural disorders, and diseases impacting pediatric populations. Currently, one of the major goals of the National Institutes of Health MPS program, led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), is to demonstrate the utility of this emerging technology and help support the path to community adoption. However, community adoption of MPS technology has been hindered by a variety of factors including biological and technological challenges in device creation, issues with validation and standardization of MPS technology, and potential complications related to commercialization. In this brief Minireview, we offer an NCATS perspective on what current barriers exist to MPS adoption and provide an outlook on the future path to adoption of these in vitro tools.