Blog #11 "Organ-on-a-Chip Mimics Deadly Lung Condition"

A new research is being conducted at Harvard University which shows that a micro device can one day replace the procedures used by scientist and researchers to experiment on animal testing with a new “lung-on-a-chip” technology can mimic a life-threatening lung condition. They also report that scientists can uncover new aspects of the disease using the lung chip that would not be found with animal experiments. The new micro chip which is being developed could be made to look like the organs of human beings like the a gut, heart, and kidney that will be used to model a disease and at the same time test drugs. The lung on the chip is made to have "human lung cells human lung cells; a nutrient-rich liquid that acts as a blood substitute flows through the other, which is lined with blood-vessel cells. A vacuum applied to chip moves the channels to re-create the way human lung tissues physically expand and contract when breathing." (Susan Young). The study which is being led by Wyss Institute which is used to focus on pulmonary edema, a condition in which fluid and blood clots fill the lungs. This condition is said that it can be caused by heart failure as well as the side effects of a common cancer drug.

I don't know if this new technology will work as there are skeptics out there that this new procedure will lack the effect on human organs, such as the various hormones and other molecular cues that are constantly being circulated throughout the body of an organism. This new way of using drugs to test on animals has not fully worked completely and using micro chips to replace the animals would also be a risk to take in trying to figure if a drug could be used on humans.  There have to be more test and research to be done in order to use this process and can help humans cure the disease that relevant today. I personally don't agree with this new technology because there is no way a mimicking chip could be used in order to find the side effects of humans who have certain diseases. There is also a video that shows how the process of this new technology and the research being conduct by the scientists. 


http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506896/organ-on-a-chip-mimics-deadly-lung-condition/ 

 http://www.technologyreview.com/demo/427992/building-an-organ-on-a-chip/