CAARE Citizens for
Alternatives to Animal Research and Experimentation
May 2017
New research carried out by a collaboration of the
Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Emulate Inc., and Janssen
Pharmaceutical, is the first to create an organ-on-a-chip that can
demonstrate the complex physiology of human pulmonary thrombosis.
Organs-on-chips have changed the face of biomedical research since emerging
over the past ten years. About the size of Double A battery, they are made
of a synthetic organic resin containing hollow channels that are lined with
human cells and other biological components.
A team of researchers, composed of scientists from academia and industry,
has created a model to study the intricate physiology of pulmonary
thrombosis without using animals.
The “Thrombosis-on-a-Chip” model, which builds on previous organ chip
technology, is generating unprecedented information on how clots form in the
lung and what can be done to prevent that.
Pulmonary thrombosis occurs when blood clots form in the lung. These clots
can dislodge and travel through the circulatory system where they block
narrow blood vessels. If the vessels lead to vital organs like the heart,
brain, or lung vessels, the outcome can be serious and even deadly.
Pulmonary thrombosis can arise from a number of factors, like pneumonia
or lung trauma. It can also be a serious side effect of certain drugs that
damage delicate lung capillaries, in particular, immune therapeutics used
for cancer treatment.
Pharmaceutical companies have struggled with how to avert this
life-threatening side effect, but until now have lacked the ability to study
the complex cellular interactions involved in clot formation.
New research carried out by a collaboration of the Wyss Institute at Harvard
University, Emulate Inc., and Janssen Pharmaceutical, is the first to create
an organ-on-a-chip that can demonstrate the complex physiology of human
pulmonary thrombosis.
Organs-on-chips have changed the face of biomedical research since emerging
over the past ten years. About the size of Double A battery, they are made
of a synthetic organic resin containing hollow channels that are lined with
human cells and other biological components.
Lung and capillary cells...
A key feature of organs-on-chips is their ability to recreate organ level
function in a micro-system that is translucent, so that underlying
mechanisms can be visualized.
The study’s lead author, Abhishek Jain, Ph.D., explains: "It's very
difficult to distill out specific mechanisms inside an animal, and a lot of
work in toxicology or drug discovery fails when it goes to human clinical
trials. In vitro [non-animal] models like our Thrombosis-on-a-Chip are made
from the ground-up, so you can build them to be exactly as complex as you
need for the problem you want to study."
Mouse with blood on nose...
The novel information gained through the Thrombosis-on-a-Chip will allow
scientists to use them to test potential drugs to prevent or mitigate blood
clot formation.
Wyss Institute, which has been at the forefront of organ-on-chip technology
explains the rationale behind creating organ chips : “Innumerable animal
lives are lost, and the process [animal testing] often fails to predict
human responses because traditional animal models often do not accurately
mimic human pathophysiology.”
CAARE originally reported on the collaboration between Wyss, Emulate and
Janssen in 2015, when they announced they would come together to study
pulmonary thrombosis.
It's exciting to see the progress they have made in less than two years,
once more underscoring the ability of non-animal research to surpass decades
of failed animal experiments.
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