The lung-on-a-chip can mimic both the physical and mechanical qualities of a human lung.
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University/Flickr
Chengpeng Chen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Successes in the lab mostly don’t translate to people. Research models that better mimic the human body could close the gap.
The pipes imprinted on microfluidic chips are about the size of a human hair, and in many ways are like miniaturizing a chemical manufacturing plant.
(Katherine Elvira)
Artificial cells on tiny microfluidic chips can provide early insight into how new cancer drugs behave in cells, and why certain kinds of cancer are more resistant to chemotherapy treatment.
Anything that moves or processes tiny amounts of fluid is a microfluidic device.
Chris Neils/Albert Folch
Electronics are not the only technology to have been miniaturized. Using the strange behavior of fluids in tiny spaces, microfluidic devices are critical to medicine, science and the modern world.