Abstract

Organ-on-a-Chip Platforms for Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Séverine Le Gac, Professor, Applied Microfluidics for Bioengineering Research, University of Twente

Organ-on-a-chip platforms are currently considered as the next-generation in vitro models for various fields of applications such as drug and toxicity screening, disease modeling, tissue regeneration, metabolic studies, etc. Key-advantages offered by these platforms compared to standard in vitro models are, for instance, the possibility to accurately control the cellular microenvironment and to implement dynamic culture conditions in a microfluidic format, to emulate the architecture and/or the function of targeted organs by combining specific microstructures with cells, and to stimulate the cells in the device, e.g., chemically, mechanically, electrically, with an excellent spatiotemporal control. In my presentation, I will present current work from our group in the field of organ-on-a-chip with a particular focus on the field of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), with devices for the in vitro culture of mammalian embryos, the in vitro production of bovine embryos (oviduct-on-a-chip platform) and the ex vivo culture of testis tissues.