It appears that the time to use animals to test a product is over with the new Human Organs-on-Chips project which was announced as the overall winner of the annual Designs of the Year awards
It is developed by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh from Harvard University's
Wyss Institute and uses human cells to line its tiny microchip-like devices to mimic the complex tissue structures of human organs. The product is intended to be used for drugs and cosmetics testing, as well as for the treatment of infections and inherited diseases.
"The chips are clear polymers that contain hollow micro-channels lined with living organ cells and blood capillary cells that can be manipulated to replicate organ functions. The chips are a form of cell-culture, but a marked advancement on existing models in terms of their accuracy in predicting the effects of untested drugs on human organs. The longterm aim of the chips, once the technology is perfected, is to replace human and animal testing in medicine, speed up the discovery of new drugs, and decrease the cost and risk of such drugs' development."
