Explore more about: Tissue Chips

Tissue engineering research has uncovered that a skin cell type could be a new therapeutic target to accelerate the healing of burns and possibly other wounds.

NIBIB-funded researchers have developed an interlinked tissue chip system that can model four mature organs in their perspective environments simultaneously. These multi-organ tissue chips could represent a new way to evaluate diseases or drugs that affect multiple different tissues.

In a new study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers demonstrated that human kidney organoids are useful models to identify the point of permanent and reversible kidney cell damage and they also discovered a drug candidate that could potentially prevent chronic disease before reaching that point. Read more at STAT.

Engineers developed a way to grow tiny replicas of the pancreas, using either healthy or cancerous pancreatic cells. Their models could help researchers develop and test potential drugs for pancreatic cancer.

Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) disorder is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the placenta remains attached to the uterus after childbirth. Now researchers have developed a blood test to identify this condition, enabling early intervention by high-risk pregnancy specialists.

Researchers are pushing organ-on-a-chip devices to new levels that could change the way clinicians approach cancer treatment, particularly ovarian cancer.

Sickle cell disease is the most prevalent inherited blood disorder in the world, affecting 70,000 to 100,000 Americans. However, it is considered an orphan disease, meaning it impacts less than 200,000 people nationally, and is therefore underrepresented in therapeutic research.

Biomedical engineers have demonstrated that human muscle has an innate ability to ward off damaging effects of chronic inflammation when exercised. The discovery was made possible through the use of lab-grown, engineered human muscle, demonstrating the potential power of the first-of-its-kind platform in such research endeavors.

Research into what is known as the gut-brain axis continues to reveal how the brain and gut influence each other’s health and well-being. Now researchers are endeavoring to learn more about gut-brain discourse using a model system built in a lab dish.

The Tissue Chips in Space initiative is an ambitious collaborative endeavor that brings NIBIB, NCATS, and the ISS U.S. National Laboratory together to rapidly advance tissue chip technology for biomedical research.