Organs-on-a-Chip (Synthetic
Biology)... Devices to Replace Animal Testing. |
Donald
Ingber (Wyss Institute Biological Engineering at
Harvard) being frustrated with animal model in clinical
research set out to create in vitro models using
processes to manufacture computer microchips, which
could maintain a surface topology at nanometer
resolution. The chips have hollow channels
the size of a cell and using microfluidics
would allow one to manipulate processes at a cellular
level.
In 2005 they were able to to create channels small
enough to simulate a small lung
airway that, when liquids flowed through the
channels, recreated fluid sounds akin to a physicians
stethoscope. (a Lung-on-a-Chip).
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By 2010 (Science DOI: 10.1126/science.118830) they
were able to incorporate cells creating a chip-tissue
interface to monitor responses of live cells to different
microfluidic drugs of chemicals (the Lung Chip). The Lung-on-a-Chip
contains a vascular channel through which a
blood-mimicking medium flows (red)
and airway channels through which air flows (blue), each lined by living
human cells. Connecting the chip to a pump can imitate the
physical forces that breathing exerts on lung tissue. |
In 2021 Ingebr's group created a CF-chip. The Cystic Fibrosis AIrway Chip shows
higher cilliary activity and enhanced bacterial growth in
mucus (greater than seen in “healthy lung chips”),
including the presence of the pathogen Pseudomas
aeruginosa, which causes CF lung infections. The CF
Airway Chip replicates at CF patient’s micro environment
and its pathophysiology that may lead to better treatments
and even cures? JCF (2021) |
Ingber’s laboratory has a $37 mil grant from
DARPA to develop up to 10
different human organ chip models including, Lymphoid
Follicle Chip to asses human vaccination responses and a
Lung Aleveolus Chip to identify drugs that might be
repurposed to treat Covid-19. DARPA announced it was
seeking a system incorporating 10 organ chips that could
be used to evaluate medical countermeasures, such as those
for exposure to chemical or biological weapons, for which
human trials would be impractical or unethical. |
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