ORGAN ON CHIP (S&T)

 ORGAN ON CHIP (S&T)

Organ on chip:

• Organ chips are small devices with human cells that are used to mimic the environment in human organs such as blood flow and breathing movements, that can act as synthetic environments to test new drugs.
• Donald Ingber, a professor of bioengineering and director of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University along with his colleagues developed the first human organ-on-a-chip model in 2010.
• Later in 2014, members of the Wyss Institute started a startup named “Emulate Inc.” to commercialize the organ-on-a-chip technology. 

Significance of Organ chips :

• The most significant advantage of using Organ on a chip technology is that it can help predict how specific organs respond to the exposure of a potential chemical hazard found in foods, cosmetics and/or dietary supplements with better precision than other methods currently in use such as cell-culture or animal-based tests.
• Further, the Organ on a chip model is seen to be an alternative for clinical trials of drugs on animals which are criticised widely as an unethical and scientifically bogus practice.

Organ chips in India:

• A few of the research groups in India have also involved themselves in developing new organ-on-chip models.
• Researchers and experts at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai along with a team of chemical engineers at IIT Bombay have developed a skin-on-chip model.