Harvard's Wyss Institute and Sony DADC Announce Collaboration on Organs-on-Chips

The Wyss Institute's lung-on-a-chip, made using human lung and blood vessel cells, is a device about the size of a memory stick that acts much like a lung in a human body. A vacuum re-creates the way the lungs physically expand and contract during breathing. [Credit: Wyss Institute]

Today the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Sony DADC announced a collaboration that will harness Sony DADC's global manufacturing expertise to further advance the Institute's Organs-on-Chips technologies.

Human Organs-on-Chips are composed of a clear, flexible polymer about the size of a computer memory stick, and contain hollow microfluidic channels lined by living human cells -- allowing researchers to recapitulate the physiological and mechanical functions of the organs, and to observe what happens in real time. 

The goal is to provide more predictive and useful measures of the efficacy and safety of new drugs in humans -- and at a fraction of the time and costs associated with traditional animal testing.

"We are excited to apply Sony DADC's deep manufacturing expertise to confront one of the major challenges in the life sciences by helping to accelerate the translation of the Wyss Institute's Organ-on-Chips from the benchtop to the marketplace," said Christoph Mauracher, Senior Vice President of the BioSciences division of Sony DADC. "The Organs-on-Chips have the potential to revolutionize testing of drugs, chemicals, toxins and cosmetics."

This collaboration builds on the momentum the Wyss Institute team has gained recently on its Organs-on-Chips research program. With support from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)*, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and pharmaceutical partners, more than ten Organs-on-Chips are currently under development at the Wyss Institute, including a lung, heart, liver, kidney, bone marrow, and gut-on-a-chip; there is also a major effort to integrate these organ chips into "human body on-chips" that mimic whole body physiology.

In February, Wyss Founding Director Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who leads the Organs-on-Chips research program, received the prestigious 3Rs Prize from the UK's National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research for the lung-on-a-chip. This month, the Society of Toxicology awarded him the Leading Edge in Basic Science Award for his "seminal scientific contributions and advances to understanding fundamental mechanisms of toxicity."

"Our work with Sony is a wonderful example of the Wyss Institute model in action," said Ingber. "We collaborate with industry to help de-risk the technologies we develop, both technically and commercially, and therefore expedite their translation into real world applications."

###

*Part of this research was sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) and DARPA; the views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of ARO, DARPA or the U.S. Government.

Contacts

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering 
Kristen M. Kusek
+1 617-432-8266
Kristen.kusek@wyss.harvard.edu 

Sony DADC
Manfred Koranda
+43 6246 880 8143
manfred.koranda@sonydadc.com

wyss.harvard.edu

Researchers Developing 3D Printer, 'Bio-Ink' to Create Human Organs

Experts agree that rising Chinese labor costs and improving U.S. technology will gradually cause significant manufacturing activity to return to the United States.

When it does, a new interdisciplinary manufacturing venture called the Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMTecH) group at the University of Iowa College of Engineering’s Center for Computer Aided Design (CCAD) will likely help lead the charge.

AMTecH was formed to design, create, and test—both virtually and physically—a wide variety of electromechanical and biomedical components, systems and processes. Currently, the group is working on projects ranging from printed circuit boards for automobiles and aircraft to replacement parts for damaged and failing human organs and tissue, says Tim Marler, AMTecH co-director.

“Electromechanical systems are one of two current branches of the AMTecHgroup,” he says. “We want to simulate, analyze and test printed circuit boards and assemblies, because they are used in a wide range of products from missiles to power plants to cell phones.
“The second branch of the group involves biomanufacturing and is led by my colleague and AMTecH co-director Ibrahim Ozbolat, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering,” says Marler. “The long-term goal of this branch is to create functioning human organs some five or 10 years from now. This is not far-fetched.”

Using its facilities for engineering living tissue systems, the Biomanufacturing Laboratory at CCAD is working to develop and refine various 3D printing processes required for organ and tissue fabrication, Ozbolat says.

“One of the most promising research activities is bioprinting a glucose-sensitive pancreatic organ that can be grown in a lab and transplanted anywhere inside the body to regulate the glucose level of blood,” says Ozbolat. He adds that the 3D printing, as well as virtual electronic manufacturing, being conducted at AMTecH are done nowhere else in Iowa.

In fact, the multi-arm bio printer being used in the lab is unique. Ozbolat and Howard Chen, a UI doctoral student in industrial engineering, designed it and Chen built it. It turns out that managing multiple arms without having them collide with one another is difficult enough that other printers used in other parts of the world avoid the problem by using simpler designs calling for single-arm printing. As Chen continues to refine his and Ozbolat's design, the UI printer currently gives the UI researchers a distinct advantage.

While bioprinters at other institutions use one arm with multiple heads to print multiple materials one after the other, the UI device with multiple arms can print several materials concurrently. This capability offers a time-saving advantage when attempting to print a human organ because one arm can be used to create blood vessels while the other arm is creating tissue-specific cells in between the blood vessels.

The biomanufacturing group, which consists of researchers from various disciplines including industrial, mechanical, electrical, polymer and biomedical engineers as well as medical researchers, is working on this and other projects, and collaborates with Dr. Nicholas Zavazava, professor of internal medicine, in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. The group also works with researchers from the college’s Ignacio V. Ponsetti Biochemistry and Cell Biology Laboratory.

In addition to receiving support from the National Institutes of Health for the artificial pancreas research, AMTecH is looking forward to continued support from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as well as seed funding from the UI for fostering commercialization of a new software product.

“When you look at the U.S. manufacturing environment and relevant technology, this is a perfect time to launch AMTecH,” says Marler, who also serves as associate research scientist at CCAD and senior research scientist at CCAD’s renowned Virtual Soldier Research program.

AMTecH co-directors Marler and Ozbolat are advised by Herm Reininga, interim director of the National Advanced Driving Simulator and member of the leadership council of the national Next Generation Manufacturing Technology Initiative. The AMTecH group also includes one research staff member, one postdoctoral student, seven graduate students, and four undergraduate students.

Located within CCAD, AMTecH conducts cutting-edge research and development aimed at advancing and exploring next generation manufacturing technologies

newswise.com