Bone-on-a-chip device could lessen need for animal experiments

In a paper published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, the researchers – led by Sheffield University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine - demonstrate how the bone-on-a-chip, which contains living cells, can be used to grow bone tissue which can then be used to test new potential treatments for diseased or damaged bones.

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Testing new medicines usually requires extensive in vivo assessments that involve animals, but the new approach has been developed in vitro - entirely in the laboratory - and reduces the need to use animals in research.

According to Sheffield University, the field of organ-on-a-chip aims to create small devices that contain miniature versions of organs such as bone, liver or lungs in the laboratory. By testing new medicines on small versions of human organs rather than in animal models, the hope is that there will be a higher success rate of finding ones that work in humans.