Towards a body-on-a-chip

IN A recently opened laboratory just north of London, an experiment is under way to discover how the liver will respond to an new drug. Normally such a test would be carried out on liver cells cultured in rows of dishes or—as regulators require before approving a drug for clinical trial—in animals such as rats or dogs. But this experiment uses a small device about the size of a smartphone. It contains a miniature liver made from human cells and promises more reliable results. It is one of the first commercial versions of what bioengineers call an organ-on-a-chip.

The liver chip, named Quantum-B, was made by CN Bio, a firm spun out of the University of Oxford and now based in Welwyn Garden City. Quantum-B is designed to help researchers find a cure for hepatitis B, a viral infection of the liver. Other groups coming up with miniature organs include, in America, the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, whose devices include a lung-on-a-chip (pictured above), and the University of California, Berkeley, which has a heart-on-a-chip. Chips replicating the kidney, intestine, muscle, fat, bone and skin are also being developed.