This is a common question: what extracellular matrix (ECM) should I use? Specifically, the choice of matrix is very important to mimic the tumor–stromal cells interaction during cancer intravasation. This paper by Agrawal et al. from the Moeendarbary lab at University College London uses a tumor on a chip...
Normally, you would have to wash your cells many times before and after drug exposure, especially if you want to create pharmacokinetic (PK) exposure profile in your system. Here is the thing: what if you had an automatic perfusion system that can do this automatically? This is possible with...
Can organ on a chip platforms be used to culture and maintain functional hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells (HSPC)? This is a recent paper from Sharipol et al. from the University of Rochester, culturing important components of murine bone marrow microenvironment (BMME) in an organ on a chip....
How can you use a tumor on a chip platform to study the effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) on lymphocytes and cancer cells? This is a recent paper from Sieviläinen et al. at the university of Helsinki that uses an organ on a chip, lymphocytes and head and...
How can organ-on-a-chip improve cardiac microtissue maturation and function? Recapitulating complex myocardial tissue has always been challenging due to its complex biochemical and biophysical characteristics. This is a recent paper from Moreira et al. at the polytechnic university of Milan where the authors study how the perfusion of culture...
Intestinal organoids have found application in modeling intestinal function and infection, but is it feasible to replicate gastrointestinal motility and microbiome stability with organoids? One of the limitations is to access their lumens and modify their contents. A challenge that Ginga et al. at the Georgia Institute of Technology...
An interesting paper from Kim and Rhee groups at Korea Basic Science Institute and Incheon National University co-culturing glioblastoma with microglial cells in a tumor on a chip. They investigated therapeutic effects of microRNAs on tumor progression in brain cancer. The authors loaded microRNA-124 into extracellular vesicles, as a potential therapeutic...
A beautiful paper from Jianhua Qin’s lab from the Chinese Academy of Sciences modelling Liver–pancreatic Islet Axis. They used a multi-organoid organ on a chip system to study glucose regulation in physiological and pathological conditions. After culturing the hiPSCs in “micro-wells” and creating embryonic bodies, the authors differentiated them...
Everyone can pipette conditioned media of an intestinal cell culture into a hepatocyte model to study intestine–liver interaction. But what if you could use the same cell models and not only to make this process automatic (save money), but also to control the cross-talk (more flexibility)? Enjoy this paper...
A recent paper from Jang et al. from Kuh’s lab at the Catholic University of Korea co-culturing pancreatic cancer cells with fibroblasts and macrophages to create a 3D tumor on a chip model. The paper evaluates the culture of the cancer cells with and without the stromal cells and...
