applications

life sciences: Organ-on-a-chip

An Organ-on-a-Chip (OoC) is a micro-scale cell cultivation integrated system that allows to recreate an environment that mimics the physiology and conditions of a living body, usually with human cells. Through carefully integrated microfluidics, actuators, sensors, and control protocols, these systems present an ethical and more versatile alternative to animal testing and experimentation that also provides more precise human tissue models.

A next-generation experimental platform

They offer a wide variety of highly valuable applications.

Their precision and customization result in an innovative tool to investigate human physiology and pathology and the effect of therapeutics in the body.

OoC presents a revolutionary way of producing different body tissues, organs and cells for medical treatments, allowing for customized tissue generation and reducing the probabilities of medical rejection from the receiving patient. The system allows for extensive testing of pharmaceutical drugs and cosmetics, providing essential data in the development of new medical treatments.

Furthermore, OoC allows to automate laboratory protocols, providing replicability and a controlled environment. The automation introduced by OoC powers a jump in reproducibility for biomedical research, as it reduces manipulation and minimizes contamination.

Why are precise microfluidics devices necessary?

Traditional cellular cultivation systems were static, meaning that results were not accurate and could not be safely extrapolated to the human body. Continuous flow systems aim to simulate the continuous arrival of nutrients that occurs in the body. Continuous flow allows for better control and monitoring of the effects experienced by the cells in the system. Continuity also allows for higher replicability, since the automatization of the process minimizes human testing errors and enables to establish fixed testing parameters to obtain more robust results.

These systems are highly complex, and their functioning involves numerous challenges:

  • The first and more pressing issue is biocompatibility. Not all materials used in microfluidics are compatible. Finding biocompatible materials suitable for microfabrication is challenging and requires precise skills. Therefore, expertise in microfabrication is essential to build these systems.

  • Achieving a uniform distribution of the flow is crucial for the correct development of the cells. Optimal reactor design is needed to guarantee uniform distribution. At B5tec different optimized reactors have been designed for different applications.

  • Having exact control over the flow velocities is essential to achieve an adequate absorption of the nutrients. A very precise flow controller is needed to guarantee it.

  • Avoiding and mitigating the effect of bubbles in the system is essential to preserve experimental accuracy. Precise microreactor design is an important factor to prevent the appearance of bubbles. However, if they do appear, a precise flow control system is key to mitigate their effect. B5tec’s flow controller incorporates a Bubble Elimination Protocol, to minimize the effects to the cells.

  • Maintenance of the system is complex, when any of the individual devices gets clogged or stops functioning, the whole cellular growth is at risk. Therefore, integration of all actuators and sensors in a universal control board provides more durability and prolonged experimental times.

  • Finally, one of the most complex needs of these systems is the integration of independent control of different external factors. To obtain comprehensive studies, it is necessary to be able to feed the different nutrients or toxins into the culture medium on demand. To do so, separate control systems for each external factor can be coupled and combined with very precise microvalves.

All these challenges can be solved with precise microfluidic actuators and sensors, accurate microfabrication and carefully designed operation protocols. B5tec has developed devices and control protocols to overcome all the different challenges that OoC entails. 

Real-life example:

Organ-on-a-chip is the general term to describe these kinds of systems. However, the reactors and mediums needed to cultivate different kinds of cells are distinct and specific. Therefore, the final setups for specific cells have some fundamental differences. At B5tec successful implementations of Skin-on-a-chip and Bone-on-a-chip have been achieved.

We have two areas of organ on a chip…

WHICH ONE WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT?

Skin-on-a-chip

Bone-on-a-chip

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