In September 2018, NCATS funded an estimated $6 million in two-year awards to continue supporting the Tissue Chip Testing Centers (TCTCs) and the database center that had been established in 2016. Investigators at these centers tested and validated tissue chip platforms developed through the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program. The new awards, which were made in response to RFA-TR-18-005 and RFA-TR-18-006, supported activities by these NextGen TCTCs to advance the wider adoption of tissue chip technologies by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, as well as regulatory agencies, and to transition this technology into commercialization.

Texas A&M University, College Station

TEX-VAL: Texas A&M Tissue Chip Validation Consortium

Principal Investigators: Ivan Rusyn, M.D., Ph.D., and Clifford Stephan, Ph.D.    
Grant Number: 1-U24-TR-002633-01

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Translational Center of Tissue Chip Technologies for Quantitative Characterization of Microphysiological System Technologies

Principal Investigators: Murat Cirit, Ph.D., and Alan J. Grodzinsky, Sc.D.     
Grant Number: 1-U24-TR-002634-01

University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh Microphysiology Systems Database Center

Principal Investigators: Mark E. Schurdak, Ph.D., and Albert H. Gough, Ph.D.     
Grant Number: 1-U24-TR-002632-01