Issue 12, 2012

Microengineered physiological biomimicry: Organs-on-Chips

Abstract

Microscale engineering technologies provide unprecedented opportunities to create cell culture microenvironments that go beyond current three-dimensional in vitro models by recapitulating the critical tissue–tissue interfaces, spatiotemporal chemical gradients, and dynamic mechanical microenvironments of living organs. Here we review recent advances in this field made over the past two years that are focused on the development of ‘Organs-on-Chips’ in which living cells are cultured within microfluidic devices that have been microengineered to reconstitute tissue arrangements observed in living organs in order to study physiology in an organ-specific context and to develop specialized in vitro disease models. We discuss the potential of organs-on-chips as alternatives to conventional cell culture models and animal testing for pharmaceutical and toxicology applications. We also explore challenges that lie ahead if this field is to fulfil its promise to transform the future of drug development and chemical safety testing.

Graphical abstract: Microengineered physiological biomimicry: Organs-on-Chips

  • This article is part of the themed collection: Focus on USA

Article information

Article type
Frontier
Submitted
23 Jan 2012
Accepted
05 Apr 2012
First published
03 Mai 2012

Lab Chip, 2012,12, 2156-2164

Microengineered physiological biomimicry: Organs-on-Chips

D. Huh, Y. Torisawa, G. A. Hamilton, H. J. Kim and D. E. Ingber, Lab Chip, 2012, 12, 2156 DOI: 10.1039/C2LC40089H

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