Livers-on-Chips

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the first regulatory body to begin to use miniature models of a human organ – the liver. These models (pictured) are made from different types of human liver cells grown on a scaffold. This scaffold has blood-like fluid pumped through it to deliver nutrients and remove waste products. The FDA want to find out if these ‘livers-on-chips’ can reliably model how our bodies react to new foods, including added colours and flavours, and food-borne illnesses. If its initial trial is successful, the FDA may start testing on kidney, lung and intestine models. These could more closely replicate how the cells in our body behave than is currently possible with computer models and through studies on human tissues and animals. And ultimately reduce the number of animals used in testing. However, it will still be some time before ‘organs-on-chips’ replace traditional research techniques.

Written by Charlotte Rose Davison

Charlotte Rose Davison

Former MRC LMS Visiting Writer

A recent University of Nottingham graduate, Charlotte is now a PhD candidate funded by the BBSRC. She has an unhealthy fascination with parasites and genetic abnormalities, which she loves to communicate to anyone who will listen.

• Image by Emulate Inc., Boston, MA, USA, published in Nature, April 2017
• US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA
• Image copyright held by Nature Publishing Group 2017
• Announcement in FDA Voice blog, April 2017