Themed collection Breakthrough Technologies and Applications in Organ-On-a-Chip

This perspective offers an in-depth analysis of the organ-on-a-chip commercialization landscape, providing real-world insights from NSF I-Corps interviews that reveal the underlying challenges hindering commercial translation and industry adoption.

Advanced 3D models like organoids and brain-on-chip systems better mimic brain complexity, enabling improved monitoring of neural circuitry and offering new tools to study and treat neurodegenerative diseases.

This review highlights current in vitro models as well as microfluidic dual- and multi-organ systems with a focus on absorption (skin, lung, gut) and metabolism (liver) studies.

Vascular microphysiological systems (MPS) are biologically relevant platforms, enabling the study of physical parameters (shear stress, interstitial flow, permeability) and biomedical applications (tissue modeling, cancer research, drug screening).

This review overviews the state-of-the-art cancer-on-a-chip technology for tumor microenvironment modeling and therapy screening, and outlines the path to develop next generation of chip for precision cancer medicine.

This review provides an overview of state-of-the-art patient-derived 3D tumor models with a focus on patient-derived organotypic tumor spheroids (PDOTS), current preclinical applications, and future directions for preclinical and clinical use.

Organs-on-chips (OoCs) can be directly fabricated by 3D bioprinting techniques, which enhance the structural and functional fidelity of organ models and broaden the applications of OoCs.

A microfluidic tumor-on-a-chip platform reveals hypoxia-induced radioresistance and metabolic shifts via integrated PET imaging.

The optimized lymphatics on-chip in vitro model successfully rank ordered subcutaneous absorption of a panel of nine macromolecules (e.g. monoclonal antibodies) and shows potential to inform candidate selection during early drug development.

Endothelial cells cultured on aligned fibrin matrices exhibit enhanced barrier integrity.

This paper reports the first self-assembled human arteriole-on-a-chip model by stimulating the arteriogenic process in developed HUAEC vessels, and its applications for vasoconstriction, vasodilation, and arterial thrombosis are demonstrated.

The key elements in the development of the LEADS chip are highlighted; the crucial features of the chip for mimicking NASH in vitro and its applicability as a pre-clinical drug testing model.

An organ-on-a-chip platform to innervate organoids by first developing innervated granular hydrogel tissue constructs and sequentially adding organoids.

High-throughput placental barrier model using AngioPlate™ reveals roles of trophoblasts and pericytes in regulating vascular permeability and highlights active and passive drug transport dynamics across the feto-maternal interface.

A biomimetic hydrogel model of CAVD reveals that hyaluronic acid-rich ECM and reduced stretch synergistically drive EndMT and inflammation, highlighting biomechanical and matrix cues as early modulators of disease.

An ear-on-a-chip platform enables real-time, high-throughput drug screening with TEER and cytokine sensing, reducing animal use in hearing-loss research.

Using a 3D tumor–vascular interface model, we tracked NK cell migration and tumor infiltration in real time. Our findings demonstrate that trNK cells exhibit superior tumor-killing efficiency, highlighting their potential for cancer therapy.

Vascular architecture-on-chip: engineering complex living vessels.

A microfluidic device with 48 chips was developed to study the effects of flow on an arterial model. A coculture of primary endothelial and smooth muscle cells under unidirectional flow showed a healthier vessel compared to bidirectional condition.

Using a “tumor-on-chip” model, we found that the presence of M2-like macrophages increases PD-L1 and decreases ICAM-1 expression in the endothelial cell leading to abrogation of CAR-T cell effector function (created with BioRender).

We present a multifunctional CMOS-MEA chip integrated in an open microfluidic system. The chip enables online electrophysiology, impedance, and electrochemical recordings of 3D cell cultures for dynamic tissue analysis and drug testing.

The described spheroid-on-chip model combines drug testing and immune cell infiltration, allowing the evaluation of novel therapeutic strategies by mimicking and targeting the complex tumor microenvironment (TME) of PDAC.

A novel two-photon direct laser writing-based hybrid strategy for 3D nanoprinting microfluidic vessels with sophisticated 3D architectures and custom-designed micropores.

A gut-on-a-chip platform with integrated gold electrodes has been developed to measure the barrier integrity of a human senescent model.

Organ-on-a-chip modeling of biological barriers, like the vascular endothelium, blood-brain barrier, and gut, is enabled by VitroFlo, a co-culture microfluidic device that generates physiological unidirectional shear flow without the need for pumps.

We developed a user-friendly multi-compartment chip and impeller pump to model the acute response to vaccine within a lymph node.