Advances in human organs-on-chips and applications for drug screening and personalized medicine

Abstract

The limitations of conventional animal tests and two-dimensional cell culture hinder their advancement in fundamental research and clinical/translational applications. As an emerging alternative technology, organ-on-a-chip serves as a platform that faithfully simulates the key phenotypical, physiological, and functional features of human tissues/organs through the accurate regulation of the parameters such as physical and biochemical microenvironment, as well as cellular patterns. In this review, we mainly introduce the recent progress in the organ-on-a-chip field, including lung, gut, heart, liver, vasculature and multiorgan studies. Furthermore, we highlight the potential applications in drug screening and personalized medicine. Finally, we conclude the review by addressing the current challenges and future perspective in the technology and commercialization of organ-on-chips. We anticipate that the development of organ-on-a-chip technology will revolutionize the studies on biology and medicine by providing new understanding of mechanisms of diseases and insights into clinical therapeutics.