A heart-lung micromachine will be built by Inbger, the father of cellular biotensegrity and the tensegrity model of cellular mechanics, has been awarded more than $3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to develop a "Heart-Lung Micromachine" that will accelerate drug safety and efficacy testing. From the press release:
The Heart-Lung Micromachine will be based on novel Wyss Institute technology that combines microfabrication techniques from the computer industry with modern tissue engineering techniques, human cells, and a vacuum pump to replicate the complex physiological functions and mechanical microenvironment of a breathing lung and beating heart... The micromachine will build on recent groundbreaking work by Ingber and Parker in developing the technology for building tiny, complex, three-dimensional models of human organs. These "organs on chips" mimic the complicated mechanical, cellular, and biochemical functions of specific organs, such as the lung. The proposed heart-lung device will mark a new milestone by combining two different organ systems within a single microsystem for the first time.
Ingber is working on other organ models as well, such as a kidney-on-a-chip that produces urine and an intestine-on-a-chip that exhibits peristalsis. An artificial spleen-on-a-chip is also being developed, as well as a sepsis therapeutic device, a blood infection diagnostic, and even bone marrow and cancer models. Shown here is the "lung on a chip," photo by Felice Frankel.
Okay, no tensegrity is in the announcement, but I mention it because nanotech and tensegrity are hooking up more and more often, and anyway, Ingber is a tensegrity hero! We salute him in all his efforts.
Video:
Links
Announcement: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/42
Photo of lung on a chip: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewmedia/145/lung-on-a-chip;jsessionid=C34A0102D3B1A7AD70EF49593C5726A2.wyss1
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