organ on chip

Integration of a cell patch into a chip gives rise to organ on-a-chip models. Typically, a cell patch made two types of cells are inserted in the interface of two elastoplastic plates. After clamping, solutions are injected to create physiological conditions. More generally,  integration of several tissue patches of different cell types into a microfluidic system will allow creating a body-like circulatory or micro-physiological system to investigate the mutual influences of different tissues.  For example, one can co-culture of human intestine, liver, skin and kidney cells with a medium circulation loop for drug testing.

main features

  • Easy tissue patch integration
  • Easy body on chip assays
  • Flexible flow control
  • Flexible chip configuration
  • Easy take off for analyses
  • Compatible with conventional assays

principles

 A typical OOC system has four major components including  microfluidic chip, culture patch with cells, flow control and detection modules.

  1. The microfluidic chip was used to integration culture patch with living cells, to circulate culture fluid input and discharge waste, to generate chemical gradient and shear force during the culture process.
  2. The culture patch was used for 3D cell culture or tissue formation with appropriate materials, structures and other physical specificities including stiffness, permeability, etc.
  3. The detection module are sensors allowing real time characterization the metabolites released, monitoring the function as feed back for adjusting.
  4. The control system enables system automation to control  environment at spatial & temporal resolution, to stimulate fluidic force , to maintain system for long time stability.