The Evolve of Microfluidic Organ on Chips

Today almost everything is possible with the use of the technology everything around us can be easier. Technology such made a big difference in world as the time passes by especially in the medical world. One of the latest and hottest development in the world of medicines is the birth of organ on chips. An organ on chip is a microfluidic cell culture device created with microchip manufacturing methods that contains continuously perfused chambers inhabited by living cells arranged to simulate tissue- and organ-level physiology. By recapitulating the multicellular architectures, tissue-tissue interfaces, physicochemical microenvironments and vascular perfusion of the body, these devices produce levels of tissue and organ functionality not possible with conventional 2D or 3D culture systems. They also enable high-resolution, real-time imaging and in vitro analysis of biochemical, genetic and metabolic activities of living cells in a functional tissue and organ context. This technology has great potential to advance the study of tissue development, organ physiology and disease etiology. In the context of drug discovery and development, it should be especially valuable for the study of molecular mechanisms of action, prioritization of lead candidates, toxicity testing and biomarker identification.

Some of the business company that makes it accessible to found the right chips that you are using in the labs is Corsolutions they are based in New York that truly embodies the users needs. Body-on-a-Chip is an emerging research area that cultures human organ tissue in microdevices to accurately mimic their structure and function. The goal is to develop the best predictive model of human response to therapies, drugs, cosmetics and other chemical compounds. The applications for Body-on-a-Chip are far-reaching.

Organ-on-chips could be the end of Animal Testing

The end of animal testing could finally be near as new smart microchips developed by engineers at the Harvard University promises to render the practice unnecessary. The new technology, aptly called organs-on-chip, is designed to simulate several human organ functions but on a microscale. These microchips can mimic the lungs, the intestines or the heart, making them ideal for testing cosmetics and drugs without using animal subjects and at lesser costs.

The revolutionary concept behind the Human Organs-On-Chip project was awarded the Design of the Year given by the London's Design Museum. It was able to beat out the self-driving car design developed by Google.

"The microdevices have the potential ability to deliver transformative change to pharmaceutical development and human healthcare due to the accuracy at which they emulate human organ-level functions," the developers of the organs-on-chips said.

"They stand to significantly reduce the need for animal testing by providing a faster, less expensive, less controversial and accurate means to predict whether new drug compounds will be successful in human clinical trials."

To create the microchips, the developers first had to produce a small plastic block with microchannels coursing through it. They then lined these tubes using a porous membrane with human cells taken from the lungs and several blood vessels.

This membrane layer is used to separate a solution of white blood cells required to kill off body infections from a space where cells of bacteria are kept.

The membranes are then expanded and contracted in order to allow the white blood cells to reach the bacteria cells and attack them, much like how they destroy infections in the body. Scientists would then be able to use the microchips to test the reaction of this immune system to various infectious diseases.

The design for the organs-on-chips was first conceptualized by Donald Ingber, founder of Harvard's Wyss Institute, and Dan Dongeun Huh, a former Wyss Institute developer, back in 2010.

"This is a big win towards achieving our Institute's mission of transforming medicine and the environment by developing breakthrough technologies and facilitating their translation from the benchtop to the marketplace," Ingber said.