Organs-On-Chips
Charlotte Agliata ('21)
For Science Research I read many scientific articles and wrote summaries of them. The name of this article is, “How Putting Organs on Chips Could Revolutionize Medicine,” and it is an incredible and relatively new advancement in the STEM field. I think it’s really important to stay updated, and this summary may be interesting for anyone who doesn’t want to read a whole article.
In the United States, every year, only several dozen new drugs are approved. It’s a slow process, and that’s because the drugs have to be tested in labs, then on animals, and then on humans. Sometimes, a drug that shows potential in the early stages of testing, ends up being a dud in the later stages. To make the testing process more effective, scientists have developed organs-on-chips. Essentially, what they are, is a device about the size of a credit card or smaller. Ranging kinds of organ chips contain human cell samples from the lung, liver, intestine, skin, brain, heart, bone, and reproductive systems. The reason they’re better at testing drugs than a petri dish in a lab, is they have liquid flowing through them that contains oxygen and nutrients; resembling blood. Flat petri dishes have no flow, which is an inaccurate representation of the human body. Organs-on-chips solve this problem. In one study with a kidney-on-a-chip, the kidney cells released signals called biomarkers because of the flow through the chip. Since so many chips produced good results, scientists have now tried connecting multiple different organs-on-a-chip to model the human body. These devices can be used to help people with selection of drugs and dosing, and even people with kidney cancers and diseases. Overall, organs-on-chips are going to change the development and study of drugs for the better.
Yeung, Catherine, et al. “How Putting Organs on Chips Could Revolutionize Medicine.”Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 30 May 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-organs-chips-revolutionize-medicine-180969203/.
In the United States, every year, only several dozen new drugs are approved. It’s a slow process, and that’s because the drugs have to be tested in labs, then on animals, and then on humans. Sometimes, a drug that shows potential in the early stages of testing, ends up being a dud in the later stages. To make the testing process more effective, scientists have developed organs-on-chips. Essentially, what they are, is a device about the size of a credit card or smaller. Ranging kinds of organ chips contain human cell samples from the lung, liver, intestine, skin, brain, heart, bone, and reproductive systems. The reason they’re better at testing drugs than a petri dish in a lab, is they have liquid flowing through them that contains oxygen and nutrients; resembling blood. Flat petri dishes have no flow, which is an inaccurate representation of the human body. Organs-on-chips solve this problem. In one study with a kidney-on-a-chip, the kidney cells released signals called biomarkers because of the flow through the chip. Since so many chips produced good results, scientists have now tried connecting multiple different organs-on-a-chip to model the human body. These devices can be used to help people with selection of drugs and dosing, and even people with kidney cancers and diseases. Overall, organs-on-chips are going to change the development and study of drugs for the better.
Yeung, Catherine, et al. “How Putting Organs on Chips Could Revolutionize Medicine.”Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 30 May 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-organs-chips-revolutionize-medicine-180969203/.
