Organ on a chip is an emerging technology in which engineered or miniature tissues representing human organs are grown inside microchips outfitted with tiny etched channels through which fluids can flow. These models are being used to study the effects of drugs such as metabolism, toxicity and absorption, and can be used as miniature models for different diseases.
Deeper Dive
A YouTube video posted by BioTechniques provides an in-depth, animated look at the chips. The video describes them by saying organs on a chip “allow researchers to culture physiologically relevant combinations of primary human cells together in a microfluidic chip. Within the chip, scaffolds coated in extracellular matrix encourage cells to form human organ or tissue replicas by providing an environment that mimics the body. Different tissue types can be grown, each recreating the specific function, mechanics and physiological responses of that organ.”
“Microfluidics circulate media through these structures to mimic blood flow, providing nutrients, oxygen and biomechanical cues that can keep the culture alive for multiple weeks,” the video said. “They can be dosed once or multiple times to flag acute and chronic drug toxicity and can be turned into disease models to identify druggable targets or to predict drug efficacy.” Models of the heart, lung, etc. can be linked together to predict the effects the body might have on a drug’s absorption or metabolism. They also can be used together to understand interactions between organs such as inflammation.
For more information on placenta on a chip, see this June 2024 story by STAT reported Deborah Balthazar.