The universal physiological template—a system to advance medicines

The concept of a human body-on-a-chip model emulating entire organismal homeostasis has raised high expectations during the past decade. Microphysiological systems combining all essential organs in a common medium circuit have the potential to revolutionize not only basic research but also the drug development process. Hence, various researchers aimed at developing such organismal systems, but none went beyond initial scientific publication. In the following, we will highlight the current consensus of opinion on how to approach organismal homeostasis on-a-chip and summarize major challenges and how they might be tackled by current developments.