I’m not talking about Foie Gras or Pâté on a cracker. No, I refer to artificial models of a kidney, a liver, bone marrow, and other organs. Researchers use such models to study how pathogens and therapeutics affect organs in controlled circumstances that cannot be achieved in a living organism. The former kind of research is called in vitro (in glass), and the latter in vivo (in real life). In vitro studies are done in the laboratory – often in a test tube. In vivo studies are typically done on experimental animals such as mice and Guinea pigs, and in human clinical trials, of course.
Having an organ on a chip is a means to narrow the experimental distance between in vitro and in vivo studies. The chip is typically a cassette that serves as a substrate for a culture of cells which can then be studied as they are exposed to a variety of substances/agents. This allows researchers to observe how the model organ responds to experimental circumstances such as drugs or viruses, etc.
When our son was an Infectious Disease Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, he worked with a group of virology researchers who were collaborating with a bioengineering group from Rice University. The bioengineers were working on a chip that would serve to host cells from the intestinal lining. The virology group was studying Norovirus, if I recall correctly. You will likely remember that Norovirus is a common pathogen that causes foodborne illness on cruise ships as well as in restaurants. I don’t know how successful their research model was; such things can take years to perfect. Nonetheless, it would be fair to refer to their model as a Gut on a Chip.
Today, I read a Medscape article about a Vagina on a Chip. The vagina is a biological micro-environment with a unique physiology, biochemistry, microbiome and vulnerability to particular pathogens that can be associated with cancer, miscarriage, infertility, endometriosis and other important conditions. The Medscape report was noteworthy for several reasons including the fact that this is the first successful vagina on a chip as well as the fact that this aspect of women’s health has too long been neglected. I hope that this model will help researchers unravel the secrets of the vaginal micro-environment and ultimately lead to improved women’s health outcomes.
On the light side, I see a potential market for incels and pussy grabbers like Donald Trump.