Marco Rasponi - Organ-on-a-Chip: Methods and Protocols

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For over 35 years, biological scientists have come to rely on the research protocols and methodologies in the critically acclaimed Methods in Molecular Biology series. The series was the first to introduce the step-by-step protocols approach that has become the standard in all biomedical protocol publishing. Each protocol is provided in readily-reproducible step-by-step fashion, opening with an introductory overview, a list of the materials and reagents needed to complete the experiment, and followed by a detailed procedure that is supported with a helpful notes section offering tips and tricks of the trade as well as troubleshooting advice. These hallmark features were introduced by series editor Dr. John Walker and constitute the key ingredient in each and every volume of the Methods in Molecular Biology series. Tested and trusted, comprehensive and reliable, all protocols from the series are indexed in PubMed.

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In the last few decades, microfluidics has been established as a promising tool for developing a new set of miniaturized devices, particularly relevant in the biological field. Latest advancements in microfabrication techniques allowed the recapitulation of physiologically relevant cell microenvironments within microdevices, establishing a series of microphysiological systems. Building upon the combination of microfluidics, 3D microarchitectures, and cell cultures, organ-on-a-chip (OoC) emerged as a technology able to outperform conventional in vitro models in providing a patho-physiologically relevant setting for comprehensive investigations of human physiology and disease states.

The ability of OoC to mimic the target human organ functions, together with the inherent advantages of miniaturization, e.g., high control over the mass transport phenomena and the need of extremely low amounts of cells and reagents, is contributing to the idea of using such advanced biological models in the drug development process (DDP) to improve the screening of drug candidates prior to in vivo testing.

In this book, a collection of microphysiological systems employed for chemicals/drugs screening together with the strategies employed to mimic various physiological conditions is presented. In particular, models at increasing complexities are shown, from microfluidic cell monolayers, to multi-compartmentalized cultures, to physiologic barriers and 3D cell microtissues.

OoC platforms here described include liver, intestine, blood-brain barrier, kidney, vessels, cardiac and skeletal muscles, articular joint, and human fat. Additionally, the first three chapters of the book provide a comprehensive overview of the microfabrication technologies used to fabricate OoC devices, namely (1) standard photolithography and soft lithography, (2) techniques to fabricate membranes in OoC models, and (3) industrial-oriented fabrication methods which may be used to move the OoC sector from academia to the market.

I hope that this volume on Organ-on-a-Chip will be useful to a wide readership of scientists working in the fields of biology, pharmacology, bioengineering, and tissue engineering. The protocols here described have been tuned and optimized for the specific applications described in the corresponding chapters. They can be strictly followed to reproduce the experiments therein described or serve as general guidelines to establish new organ-on-a-chip models.