Lakhasly

Organ-on-a-chip bioreactors As the previous examples illustrate, bioreactors typically have been employed to address challenges of scale-up.However, miniaturized tissues created by using microfluidic bioreactors facilitate efficient, inexpensive, high-throughput drug screening or disease modeling.Microliter volumes of fluid are pumped to the cells through channels that allow the effects of multiple concentrations of growth factors or pharmacologi- cal agents to be rapidly tested.Early modifications to these systems enabled the use of high-density 3D cell culture using multi-cell aggregates, microspheres, and cell encapsulation to better recapitulate the cell-cell interactions of native tissues in ways not possible in 2D culture.

Organ-on-a-chip bioreactors As the previous examples illustrate, bioreactors typically have been employed to address challenges of scale-up. However, miniaturized tissues created by using microfluidic bioreactors facilitate efficient, inexpensive, high-throughput drug screening or disease modeling. Microfluidic bioreactors-often referred to as lab-on-a-chip systems-use minute quantities of cells grown together in micrometer-scaled wells. Microliter volumes of fluid are pumped to the cells through channels that allow the effects of multiple concentrations of growth factors or pharmacologi- cal agents to be rapidly tested. Often, modified cells are used to permit easily monitored parameters (such as fluorescence) to be used as read-outs of cellular responses. Early modifications to these systems enabled the use of high-density 3D cell culture using multi-cell aggregates, microspheres, and cell encapsulation to better recapitulate the cell-cell interactions of native tissues in ways not possible in 2D culture. Even so, it is challenging to replicate the impact of pharmacological agents on the complex functions of tissues, such as the lung or heart, in these simpli- fied systems. Hence, more recent versions of lab-on-a-chip bioreactors have incorporated physiological factors such as airflow and mechanical stimulation that mimic breathing*5,56 have integrated vasculature and direct blood flow with contractile cardiac cells". These two technologies, which are currently being commercialized, more accurately capture physiological responses to specific stimuli while retaining the benefits of or