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I envision a future when we can grab a handful of organs on a chip, then decide on what kind of experiment we want to run. Want to see if something affects the
by jonlucc 13y ago
I envision a future when we can grab a handful of organs on a chip, then decide on what kind of experiment we want to run. Want to see if something affects the cells in bone marrow? Bone chip. Want to understand if a drug is cleared exclusively through the kidney? Bone chip + kidney chip vs bone chip + kidney + liver chip. Want to test subcutaneous vs intravenous delivery kinetics? Put together a bunch of chips: bone, kidney, liver, gut, and skin.
- peterwwillis 13y agoHell, if you're going that way, let's go the whole nine yards and grow mindless clone bodies for testing and transplants. It'd still probably be more expensive and time-consuming than animal experimentation, but it would allow for "human-like" testing faster than we can do today. I'm pretty sure "the future" is going to be based on time, money and technology. The organ-on-a-chip thing is just one of many possibilities. But until it's cheaper and more efficient than the cost of feeding and keeping rats, keep on dreaming.
- ars 13y agoThis is laughable. You aren't testing kidneys (or whatever) you are testing your chips. But your chips and the real world are only partially the same. If we knew the real world so perfectly we could make a good chip we wouldn't need those experiments. (This is the same problem as you get when you try to do physics via simulation.)