THE IDEA

A tissue on a slide

An organ-on-a-chip is a small device, often about the size of a microscope slide or smaller. Tiny channels hold living human cells, and fluid flows through them to recreate one key function of an organ.

It borrows the tools of microfabrication to build a living model.

A SHORT HISTORY

From lungs to brains

2010 A lung-on-a-chip from Donald Ingber's lab at Harvard's Wyss Institute helped launch the field

2012 Early microfluidic models of the blood-brain barrier began to appear

Today Chips model many organs, and companies such as Emulate and MIMETAS sell platforms

The field is young, and still rapidly changing.

WHAT CHIPS ADD

Features a dish cannot offer

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Flow

Fluid moves past the cells, as blood does

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Forces

Cells feel shear stress, and some chips add stretch

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Interfaces

Different tissues sit face to face across a thin barrier

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Small volumes

Tiny amounts of cells, medium, and drug are enough

A chip rebuilds a tissue's surroundings, not just its cells.

A GOOD FIT

Why a barrier suits a chip

A barrier is a thin layer between two fluids with different jobs, blood on one side and brain on the other. That layout is exactly what two microchannels and a membrane can build.

The blood-brain barrier is one of the most natural organs to put on a chip.

BE HONEST ABOUT IT

One function, not a whole organ

A chip is not a tiny brain. It reproduces selected features of a tissue so they can be studied and measured. How well it does that is the question the rest of this course keeps asking.

A chip is a model, and every model has to earn trust.

UNIT 9 STUDY COMPLETE

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Ready for the Fab Challenge?

You've seen what an organ-on-a-chip is made of, where the idea came from, and what it does not claim to be.