Introducing ATHENA, the Desktop Human “Body” (video)

Introducing ATHENA, the Desktop Human "Body" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating surrogate human organs, coupled with insights from highly sensitive mass spectrometry technologies, a new project is on the brink of revolutionizing the way we screen new drugs and toxic agents.

ATHENA, the Advanced Tissue-engineered Human Ectypal Network Analyzer project team, is developing four human organ constructs – liver, heart, lung and kidney – that are based on a significantly miniaturized platform. Each organ component will be about the size of a smartphone screen, and the whole ATHENA “body” of interconnected organs would fit neatly on a desk.

“By developing this ‘homo minutus,’ we are stepping beyond the need for animal or Petri dish testing: There are huge benefits in developing drug and toxicity analysis systems that can mimic the response of actual human organs,” said Rashi Iyer, a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the lead laboratory on the five-year, $19 million multi-institutional effort. The project is supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

Some 40 percent of pharmaceuticals fail their clinical trials, Iyer noted, and there are thousands of chemicals whose effects on humans are simply unknown. Providing a realistic, cost-effective and rapid screening system such as ATHENA with high-throughput capabilities could provide major benefits to the medical field, screening more accurately and offering a greater chance of clinical trial success.

Click here <http://youtu.be/JVVeRtHLD5o> to watch a new video about how this desktop human is set to revolutionize the way we test new drugs and toxic agents, or for a previously issued press release on the project, click here: http://1.usa.gov/1tXdvh8

Watch the Lab's video stories on the LANL YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/LosAlamosNationalLab