Abstract

A New Cells-On-A-Chip Based on Vinyl Development for Real-Time Skin Monitoring

Miguel Holgado Bolaños, Group Leader, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Tissue- and organ-on-a-chip technologies have arisen as a new enabling platform to overcome the challenges that the pharmaceutical industry faces for organ modelling and drug screening. Bioengineered 3D skin dermo-epidermal equivalents are widely used in in vitro clinical and preclinical applications. As skin grafts they can be used to generate skin-humanized mice models for disease modelling and drug discovery. However this humanized models are complex and costly to establish and maintain. There are still many challenges to face and new opportunities concerning the design of tissue-on-a-chip devices. In this work we present a new disposable biochip based on Vinyl and PDMS that can mimic skin physiology and architecture. This biochip supports the development in the upper channel of a bioengineered skin equivalent that is properly maintained through a lower channel that is continuously perfused with culture medium. Preliminary tests indicate that this biochip will allow the correct development and maintenance of human skin tissue. This skin-on-a-chip system has the potential of replacing the actual in vitro and animal models, reproducing skin structure, physiology and pathology suitable for drug testing and biomarker identification in a human scenario.