Lung On A Chip May Revolutionize Medicine Testing

A group of researchers are now working on an electronic device capable of simulating human organs for drug testing. These scientists are building “organs on a chip,” spooling together the important cells that make up, for example a lung, and then mimicking the key functions of the organ. Then researchers test to see what kind of impact a potential drug has on this lung-like system, created on a chip that is only a few inches long.

“Ultimately we’re going to have a 10-organ system we put together,” says Michael Shuler, chairman of Cornell University’s biomedical engineering department.

This could be a great advancement into how we test medicines for human use, and not only to decrease animal testing but also increasing the success rate for developed compounds as they will be much easier to try out.