Abstract

Blood Perfusion of Organs-on-Chips

Andries van der Meer, Associate Professor, University of Twente, Scientific lead, Organ-on-Chip Center Twente

Organs-on-chips are unique cell culture platforms in that they offer unparalleled control over fluid dynamics and flow. This dynamical nature also is precisely why it is very attractive to perfuse organs-on-chips with whole blood. Whole blood perfusion of organs-on-chips offers unique opportunities to broaden the impact of 3D cell culture models in biomedical and pharmacological science. Not only is blood perfusion interesting from a perspective of realistically modeling tissue physiology, but it also enables unique in vitro studies of aspects of disease that involve blood clotting, platelet activation and immune cell extravasation. In this talk, I will discuss the advantages of including blood as a routine component in organ-on-chip-based cell culture, and I will give examples of how blood-perfused organs-on-chips can be used to study aspects of COVID-19, drug toxicity and sepsis.