Industry Partner: AstraZeneca

Skin toxicity remains one of the most challenging dose-limiting side effects of oncology drugs, especially targeted therapies. Existing in vitro and animal models lack sufficient predictivity for clinical toxicity, hindering efforts to balance efficacy with safety in drug development. Development of validated human skin-on-chip platforms that mimic key toxicologic responses addresses this gap by providing industry and academia with more predictive tools, supporting safer and more effective anti-cancer drug discovery while minimising reliance on animal models.  The overall aim of this PhD studentship is to develop a next-generation vascularised skin-on-chip platform that accurately replicates essential skin toxicity responses to cancer therapeutics. 

The project will leverage QMUL’s state-of-the-art human skin models, which consist of a 3D printed skin equivalents containing keratinocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and resident macrophages. Building on this design, the proposed project will optimise the biophysical properties, perfusion and dosing of key drugs, establish robust toxicity readouts, and explore potential mechanisms of action.  In addition, new technological advances will be implemented through the engineering of a dual-chip system that enables simultaneous prediction of drug toxicity in the skin-on-chip device and therapeutic efficacy in cancer models, thereby facilitating direct assessment of the therapeutic index and supporting optimised anti-cancer drug selection. 

This project is being offered within the Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation of Organ on a Chip Technologies.  The application process is therefore slightly different to other PhDs, so  please follow the specific process described on our website found here

In collaboration with AstraZeneca, a major focus of the project will be to validate the skin-on-chip system with clinically relevant oncology agents to demonstrate correlation between in vitro readouts—target engagement, viability, proliferation, cytokine profiles, tissue integrity, immune activation—and clinical skin toxicity risk.