Organ on a Chip for Precision Nanomedicine
Accurate models for understanding the effect of medicines are crucial when studying the safety, compatibility and efficiacy of drugs and vaccines.
Traditionally in vitro cell culture and animals are commonly used however have their limitations, with being unable to recaptiulate an accurate microenvironment in the case of tradional in vitro culture and having vastly different biological pathways and ethical considerisation in the case of animal models. Organ-ona- chips look to overcome these limiations and disadvantages by using microfluidic based designs to be able to culture cells with accurate microenvironments and be able to study them in a easy and affordable manner for precision nanomedicine. Currently our group has several projected aimed at creating various organoid structures for drug and vaccine evaluaiton.
Current projects
Ms Anastasia Brooks
Liver-on-a-chip using mesenchymal stem cells for personalised drug testing
Primary investigator
Ms Anastasia Brooks
PhD Student (The University of Queensland)
Project abstract
Current study of liver diseases and drug development is hampered by the lack of an appropriate model. Most current liver models are unable to replicate the complex liver structure and function due to a lack of optimal co-culture systems which can include all the parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells found in the liver. Microfluidics offers a new potential platform for creating an in vivo like environment to better study and understand disease and drug development. Using patient derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), we aim to derive a functional liver-on-a-chip which houses a hepatic vasculature, a bile duct, and a hepatic compartment. The microfluidic device could serve as a reliable model replica of a simplified liver in structure and organ-level functions. With this model, personalised drug testing, analysis and disease modelling could be further developed and investigated.
Mr Supun Ranaweera
Lymph-node-on-chip for investigating mechanical mechanisms in immune cell activation
Primary investigator
Mr Supun Ranaweera
PhD Student
Project abstract
Vaccines have had a significant impact on global health and have led to reduction of severity and in some cases the eradication of various pathogens. Vaccines mimic pathogenic antigens to induce the production of long-lasting immune cells for protection against a pathogen. Although many vaccines exist against diseases such as HPV, Influenza and Polio, vaccine development remains slow and expensive, with most vaccines taking upwards of 15 years and costing $450 million US dollars to develop from discovery to large scale production. Therefore, in this project, a lymph node-on-chip platform will be established for vaccine evaluation. Firstly, the lymph node-on-chip microfluidic model will be fabricated and functionalised using isolated B and T immune cells from peripheral blood to study the mechanical forces at play in the humoral immune response.