The life sciences industry is rapidly transitioning toward non-animal, standardised, and high-throughput in vitro models for drug development, driven by evolving regulatory frameworks such as the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 and the EU IVDR. These regulations encourage the adoption of validated, animal-free testing methods, with the expectation that animal use will become rare by 2028–2030.
Miniaturised 3D cell models—notably spheroids and organoids—are central to this shift, offering improved physiological relevance and predictive power over traditional 2D cultures. However, challenges around reproducibility, scalability, and standardisation have limited their widespread adoption in industrial workflows.
LiveDrop’s Droplet-based microfluidics platforms, OneFlow™, address these challenges by enabling the automated, large-scale production of highly uniform and robust mini-spheroids. Recent studies performed with SciLifeLab (Stockholm, SE), GIGA Institute (Liège, BE), University of Reading-UK, and many others confirm that LiveDrop's instruments and consumable can generate tens of thousands of spheroids within minutes, with precise control over size and roundness—key parameters for reproducible drug screening and toxicity assays.
Key features demonstrated with OneFlow™ include:
- Production of ~50,000 spheroids (∼70 μm diameter) from 0.8 million cells in just 3 minutes.
- High recovery rates (~90%) and maintenance of spheroid integrity during handling.
- Compatibility with automated liquid handling and high-content imaging for downstream drug screening.
- Robust, homogeneous spheroids suitable for high-throughput toxicity testing and microscopy-based readouts.
Application notes from LiveDrop detail workflows where HepG2 liver spheroids are formed in nanoliter droplets, incubated, and transferred to 384-well plates for drug testing. These spheroids exhibit high viability (∼94% in controls), consistent size, and roundness, supporting reliable and scalable drug response measurements.
