Key points from article :
Researchers developed a model of human physiology in the form of a multi-organ chip, that can be customized to the patient.
Consists of engineered human heart, bone, liver, and skin linked by vascular flow with circulating immune cells.
“..captures the biology of organ interactions in the body,” said Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, project leader.
Tissue modules within its optimized environment...communicate across the endothelial barriers via vascular circulation.
All tissues were derived from the human induced pluripotent stem cells.
Maintained tissues for four weeks, after they were linked by vascular perfusion.
Correctly predicted effects and metabolism of doxorubicin.
Multi-organ chip with computational methodology provides an improved basis for preclinical to clinical extrapolation.
Currently using variations of this chip to study, all in individualized patient-specific contexts.
Study by Columbia Engineering and CUIMC, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
