It will be the first organ-on-a-chip facility created for veterinary species.

The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) researchers have been awarded a grant which will allow them to develop the first ever organ-on-a-chip facility for veterinary species, reducing the amount of animals needed for in-vitro testing.

Organs-on-chips (OoC) are systems that contain engineered or natural miniature tissues grown inside microfluidic chips.

They are developed to mimic species physiology better than traditional 2D cell culturing, controlling cell microenvironments and maintaining structures and functions of tissues and organs, such as the blood-brain barrier, lungs and heart, while being constantly supplied with necessary nutrients.

The technology will reflect animal tissue structures to predict responses to a wide range of stimuli, including vaccines, pathogens, environmental conditions and cell-to-cell interactions.

This will help bridge the gap between animal and human systems, allowing for drug and vaccine testing and studies into how cells interact with each other and pathogens without the use of live animal testing.

The RVC’s OoC project has been funded by UK Research and Innovation to assess the development of new vaccines and vaccine approaches by better understanding host-pathogen interactions

This will also develop regenerative medicine therapies such as stem cell therapy for tendon, heart and eye conditions, kidney failure and cancers in multi-cell systems.

The research will be led by RVC’s newly created Centre for Vaccinology and Regenerative Medicine.

Dirk Werling, professor of molecular immunology at the RVC, said: “The organ-on-a-chip is one of the top 10 emerging technologies and we are very proud to be able to establish this technology at the RVC, thus actively contributing to the development of new treatment strategies as well as further reducing the usage of animals for in-vivo testing and therefore contributing to the 3Rs – replacement, reduction and refinement.”

Image (C) RVC