(Science gone array)Meet ‘Homo chippiens’, the human in a CHIP: Researchers grow miniature functioning organs on plastic chips – and hope to replicate an entire body

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Meet ‘Homo chippiens’, the human in a CHIP: Researchers grow miniature functioning organs on plastic chips – and hope to replicate an entire body

Scientists hope to connect organ chips together to mimic a human body
They have created working lungs, gut, liver and bone marrow on the chips
The technology can be used to test medical treatments without animals
The bone marrow on a chip is to be used to study the effects of radiation
The US Department of Defense wants to join 10 organ chips together
By RICHARD GRAY FOR MAILONLINE

The human body is being recreated in miniature by growing tiny working organs on a series of plastic chips connected to each other.
Scientists, funded by the US Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health, are hoping to create a ‘body on a chip’ to mimic the way the human body works.
They have already been able to grow fingertip sized lungs, guts and livers on the chips.

One group, based at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute in Boston, is adapting ‘bone marrow on a chip’ to study the effects of radiation, for example.
It is hoped that all of these organs can be connected together to mimic real biological systems or even the entire human body. These chip based organisms have been nicknamed ‘Homo chippiens’ by some working in the field.
One project supported by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is aiming to link ten or more organs together.
According to Dapra this could be used to study to develop countermeasures against biological and chemical attacks, along with new drugs and vaccines.
It said: ‘The resulting platform should increase the quality and potentially the number of novel therapies that move through the pipeline and into clinical care.’
Another project funded by the National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences in the US is also aiming to join four organ chips together.
The three dimensional tissues are grown in layers inside plastic chips that are about the size of a computer memory stick.
Each chip contains tiny channels that mimic the structure of the organ and are lined with human cells. Nutrients are supplied by blood that flows along the channels.
Researchers at Harvard University have been able to create kidneys, gut, bone marrow and lungs on a chip using the technique….More Here

 

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