Call for papers - Advances in microphysiological systems and organs-on-chips technologies

Guest Editor

Ivan Rusyn, MD, PhD, Texas A&M University, USA
Terry R Van Vleet, PhD, AbbVie, USA

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 19 May 2025

BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology is calling for submissions to our Collection on Advances in microphysiological systems and organs-on-chips technologies. This Collection aims to explore cutting-edge advancements of in vitro microphysiological systems in basic physiological and pathological purposes, modeling human disorders, drug delivery approaches, and clinical response of therapeutics and personalized medicine.

New Content Item This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Ivan Rusyn, MD, PhD, Texas A&M University, USA

Ivan Rusyn, MD, PhD is a University Professor at Texas A&M University. Prof Rusyn’s expertise is in mechanistic toxicology and animal, in vitro, and MPS experimental models. He has an extensive track record of translating this research into regulatory decisions by working with both governmental and industry stakeholders. Prof Rusyn also directs the TEX-VAL Tissue Chip Testing Consortium at Texas A&M University, a public-private collaborative of drug and consumer product companies, trade associations, and government agencies. He is author/co-author of over 340 peer-reviewed journal publications and several book chapters.

Terry R Van Vleet, PhD, DABT, ATS, ERT, AbbVie, USA

Dr Van Vleet received a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Weber State University and a doctorate in Toxicology at Utah State University (USU). His postdoctoral training at the Medical University of South Carolina, studied mechanisms of renal toxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction. He previously worked at Bristol Myers Squibb (~11 yrs) culminating as Head of Molecular and In Vitro Toxicology. At AbbVie, he is currently Head of the Investigative Toxicology and Pathology (ITP) Department. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT), a Fellow of Academy of Toxicological Sciences (FATS), and a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT).

About the Collection

BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology is calling for submissions to our Collection on Advances in microphysiological systems and organs-on-chips technologies. This Collection aims to explore cutting-edge advancements of in vitro microphysiological systems in basic physiological and pathological purposes, modeling human disorders, drug delivery approaches, and clinical response of therapeutics and personalized medicine.

Microphysiological systems are breakthrough innovations to recapitulate aspects of complex human physiology in vitro and facilitate more precise clinical prediction compared to previous models. These systems are created by merging several threads of science and technology in pharmacology, toxicology, and biomedical engineering and exist in different forms from an Organ(s)-on-a-Chip (OOC) to other Complex in vitro Models (CIVM). These innovations represent a potential paradigm shift in how we model human biology in vitro, offering opportunities to mimic the complexities of human organs and tissues. Through the integration of these devices/technologies into both research and drug development, researchers may uncover novel pathways for drug discovery, disease modeling, and toxicity assessment.

These advancements serve to establish more efficient, ethically grounded, and predictive methodologies. Future developments target to scale up production, enhance complexity for multi-organ interaction modeling, and broaden applications for personalized medicine and high-throughput drug screening. These efforts hold potential for transforming preclinical research and improving the accuracy of predicting human responses to pharmaceuticals and environmental toxicants.

We invite toxicologists, biomedical engineers, and interdisciplinary researchers to explore the recent advancements in and examples of the utility of OOC and CIVM and contribute their robust science to this Collection. Key topics of interest for this Collection include, but are not limited to:

Application of OOC and CIVM that create physiologically relevant models for drug testing, disease modeling, and cell therapy
Advancements in the use of OOC and CIVM for studying drug metabolism, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics, with a focus on reproducibility and translatability
Development and examples of using OOC and CIVM for high-throughput screening, safety and/or diagnostic testing, and point-of-care applications in pharmacology and toxicology
Engineering of microfluidic systems to control cell culture environments, simulate physiological flow conditions, and study cellular responses to chemical stimuli
Integration of engineering principles with biological systems to design innovative solutions for drug delivery, tissue regeneration, disease modeling, personalized diagnosis and therapy
Evaluating OOC and CIVM for their robustness, reproducibility, and applicability to specific contexts of use in drug and chemical safety testing

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being.

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Advances in microphysiological systems and organs-on-chips technologies" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.