Human disease and regenerative medicine models, including formats referred to as “organ-on-chip” (OoC), are increasingly regarded as powerful tools for drug discovery, safety pharmacology and efficacy testing, in both personalized and precision medicine. Developed over the past 10 years, they constitute an important new approach to medicine and towards the replacement of animal models. To date, however, OoC models lack the lymphatic and immune system, despite their essential role in health and disease.
In LymphChip, pioneers in organ-on-chip technology have joined forces to develop these OoC models to create miniature tissue models of heart, skin and gut with integrated lymphatic and immune system. The aim is to provide a precision tool for immune-related diseases without using animals. LymphChip will pave the way for successful implementation of the technologies and research models developed among its major stakeholders (academic scientists, commercial partners, society and end users). It will have major societal-economic benefits via commercialization of the technology, reduction of animal experiments and development of better disease models, resulting in improved patient care.
