Organs-On-Chips

A large part of disaster management involves planning the medical response in a crisis – for example, how best to treat a person exposed to high levels of radiation. Preparing for such events can be tricky – clearly it’s unethical to use humans or animals to trial radiation dosages and treatments. With this in mind, bioengineers have begun to develop ‘organs on chips’ – pictured is a simulated human lung. The main channel running down the centre of the chip contains lung cells which form a boundary between air flow (green) and blood flow (red), much like a real lung. This chip models the function of a human lung, and can even be connected to other organ chips to form a complete biological system – or human ‘body’. Organs on chips enable the effects of toxic chemicals to be monitored and provide a great defence against chemical or biological attacks.

Written by Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas

Writer

Currently at Warwick University, Helen is working towards a chemistry doctorate in nanomaterials. However her scientific interests remain broad, and she enjoys exploring these different areas as a writer for the University paper.

• Image by Wyss Institute
• Harvard University
• Copyright held by Nature Publishing Group
• Originally published in Nature, February 2015