Automation and opportunities for industry scale-up of microphysiological systems

Abstract Microphysiological systems (MPS) are designed to model human biology at the smallest possible scale under physiological or pathological conditions. For industrial application the pharmaceutical drug development process is believed to gain the most from MPS technology, but the throughput, accuracy, and convenience of assays performed in MPS devices hamper industrial adoption. Scaling up of device production, standardization of tissue model precultures, and automation of system operation and data analyses will strongly enhance the usability of MPS. In this chapter, we discuss all major aspects of transitioning MPS devices from research-driven small-scale applications to automated, industry-compliant larger-scale use.