NIH inventors are seeking a licensee or collaborator for a micro-engineered “thyroid-on-a-chip” that combines human thyroid organoids with integrated micro-vasculature to replicate the gland’s native blood flow and 3-D architecture, enabling rapid, patient-specific drug screening. This technology offers a high-fidelity bridge between benchtop discovery and clinical decision-making, addressing an unmet need for robust human thyroid models.

This chip:

• Is the first thyroid model to incorporate functional micro-vasculature, closely mirroring in-vivo hemodynamics and hormone exchange.
• Allows insertion of primary patient cells, enabling personalized therapy selection and reducing costly late-stage clinical failures.
• Generates predictive efficacy and safety data in days, cutting pre-clinical study time and animal use.

Commercial Applications:

• Patient-specific screening of small-molecule, biologic, or radiotherapeutic candidates for thyroid cancer and autoimmune thyroiditis.
• Investigating thyroid-immune interactions to identify new immunomodulatory drug targets.
• High-throughput endocrine toxicity testing for pipeline compounds and environmental chemicals.

If you are interested in learning more or contacting the licensing specialist, you can do so through the abstract: Vascularized Thyroid-on-a-Chip for Personalized Drug Screening and Disease Modeling