Microchips Replicating Human Tissue Open New Opportunities For Research
The chips allow scientists to measure how certain body parts react to caffeine, heart medicine or other more dangerous toxins.
Mercury News:
Technology Offers Hope For End Of Animal Testing
The "Human on a Chip" program shifts the experiments from living animals to the lab by replicating cells of human organs and tissues, exposing them to chemicals and using electrical signals to measure the response. While labs and university researchers in other parts of the United States are using similar technology to test different organs of the body, scientists at Lawrence Livermore are focusing on four vital body functions: the central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, blood-brain barrier and heart. The chips allow scientists, for example, to measure how certain body parts react to caffeine, heart medicine or other more dangerous toxins. (Torres, 7/18)