Three Scientia Fellows with different fields of expertise have recently published a study about developing an organ-on-a-chip platform in the scientific journal "Lab on a Chip".
- This paper highlights the strength of the Scientia program as it combines the expertise of three fellows from different fields into this highly interdisciplinary study, says the Scientia fellow and lead author of the recently published study, Mathias Busek.
His background is in engineering with a focus on microfluidics and Organ-on-a-chip technology, and he invented and developed the device. Scientia fellows Timo Koch and Anna Frank contributed with the computational model and expertise in how immune cells (T-cells) react, respectively, when included in the recirculating organ-on-a-chip system.
Organ-on-a-chip technology explained
Organ-on-a-chip technology is a microfabrication-based approach that mimics the structure and function of human organs and tissues, providing a powerful tool for drug discovery and toxicity testing. However, many commercial and academic devices are either too simple for advanced assays or require a complicated support set-up including external driving systems such as pumps and tubing, that hamper scalability and robustness.
Novel findings in this organ-on-a-chip study
A team of scientists, including the three Scientia fellows, has now developed a novel, pump-less directional flow recirculating organ-on-a-chip platform that creates controlled unidirectional gravity-driven flow by a combination of a 3D-tilting system and an optimized microfluidic layout.
In this study, the team shows the applicability of this platform for a broad range of biological use cases including the cultivation of 3D organ representations, the incorporation of a miniaturized blood vessel system, and the recirculation of immune cells. In the future, this platform might be used to study certain diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or immune disorders and provide a useful tool for individualized therapy e.g. for emerging immunotherapies.
The importance of interdisciplinary work
The paper shows the importance of interdisciplinary work and the potential of a post-doctoral program, like the Scientia fellow program. Regular meetups and networking opportunities provided within the program helped to put the team together. The Fellows summarise that “often, the best ideas materialize in fruitful discussions with scientists from different disciplines”.
See the full paper: Pump-less, recirculating organ-on-a-chip (rOoC) platform
(Scientia Fellows - funded under MSCA grant agreement No 801133)