Overview — Lung-Chip — Liver-Chip — Intestine-Chip — Kidney-Chip Services Technology Publications Protocols & Support. Organ-on-a-chip technology combines engineered three-dimensional tissue within a microfluidic system to simulate the mechanics and physiology of entire organs. Developed by research groups nationwide, the four projects are part of the Tissue Chips in Space program. Emulate’s Organ-Chips, like this Brain-Chip, contain tiny hollow channels lined with tens of thousands of living human cells and tissues, and are each approximately the size of an AA battery.

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Three other organs-on-chips will be on-board for studies of lung host defenses, the blood-brain barrier, and musculoskeletal diseases. For example, five grants have been awarded by the US Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) to focus research on human physiology and disease on board the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory. University of Washington School of Pharmacy and UW Medicine researchers, in collaboration with the Seattle-based organ-on-a-chip company, Nortis, have been developing the “kidney-on-a chip” as a laboratory model for understanding how this organ is affected by drugs, toxins and environmental exposures. Protocols Help Articles FAQs Contact Support About. Organ-on-chip technology is evolving and is finding its way into space research. Organ-Chips in Space. Adapting the organ-on-a-chip technology for a trip to the International Space Station presented Huh’s team with a number of engineering challenges. Brain Chips in Space .

The chips contain a central chamber lined with live kidney cells. Organs-on-chips have the potential to serve as a new enabling platform to identify and validate the efficacy, safety and druggability of potential targets early in the pipeline to increase the likelihood of success in clinical trials. A good example of such an application is provided in the work of Song et al. This will be the second time that National Institute of Health tissue chips have been flown into space.

Most importantly, this lung-on-a-chip microdevice replicates the complex organ-level responses of living human lung to physiological inflammatory stimuli, such as bacteria or cytokines (e.g. TNF-α) introduced into the air space.

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