Wyss’ Organ-on-a-Chip for Modeling Influenza
It has been 99 years since the great influenza pandemic that killed many more people than had died in World War I. Vaccine development is a slow and poorly targeted prophylactic. This piece describes a new drug testing device for influenza from the Wyss Institute: “The Lung Chips are microengineered devices the size of a computer memory stick that contain two parallel hollow channels, each less than 1 millimeter wide, separated by a porous membrane. Lung alveolar cells or airway epithelial cells are cultured on the porous membrane in one channel, and lung capillary endothelial cells are grown on the opposite side of the same membrane in the second channel to recreate the characteristic tissue-tissue interface found within these lung regions. With air streaming through the lung epithelial channels and growth medium continuously streaming through the ‘vascular channels’, the team can maintain, study and manipulate the re-engineered organ units over the course of weeks to months. Deforming forces also can be applied to the tissue-tissue interface of the Alveolus Chip to mimic breathing motions of the living lung.” MORE
Image Credit: Wyss Institute