Lecture

Organ-on-Chip: Biomedical Research and Cancer Modeling

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In course

MICRO-631: Selected topics in advanced manufacturing

The course aims to provide a comprehensive overview of ongoing advanced manufacturing research topics and an opportunity for students to investigate current research trends. ...

Description

This lecture explores the field of Organ-on-Chip, focusing on creating micro-environments to study tissue and organ function, disease progression, and drug development. The instructor, Prof. Jaap den Toonder, explains the philosophy, opportunities, and technologies of Organ-on-Chip, showcasing examples from cancer research. The lecture delves into the importance of Organ-on-Chip in revolutionizing drug development, reducing costs, and improving testing accuracy. It covers the use of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, microfluidics, and microfabrication in creating advanced multi-cellular culture systems. Additionally, it discusses the modeling of cancer metastasis and the role of ECM stiffness in tumor progression.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Cell biology: Cancer

Related concepts (32)

Stem cell

In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell in a cell lineage. They are found in both embryonic and adult organisms, but they have slightly different properties in each. They are usually distinguished from progenitor cells, which cannot divide indefinitely, and precursor or blast cells, which are usually committed to differentiating into one cell type.

Adult stem cell

Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells, found throughout the body after development, that multiply by cell division to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues. Also known as somatic stem cells (from Greek σωματικóς, meaning of the body), they can be found in juvenile, adult animals, and humans, unlike embryonic stem cells. Scientific interest in adult stem cells is centered around two main characteristics.

Embryonic stem cell

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre-implantation embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells. Isolating the inner cell mass (embryoblast) using immunosurgery results in destruction of the blastocyst, a process which raises ethical issues, including whether or not embryos at the pre-implantation stage have the same moral considerations as embryos in the post-implantation stage of development.

Stem-cell therapy

Stem-cell therapy is the use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. , the only established therapy using stem cells is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This usually takes the form of a bone-marrow transplantation, but the cells can also be derived from umbilical cord blood. Research is underway to develop various sources for stem cells as well as to apply stem-cell treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Metastasis

Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, are metastases (mets). It is generally distinguished from cancer invasion, which is the direct extension and penetration by cancer cells into neighboring tissues. Cancer occurs after cells are genetically altered to proliferate rapidly and indefinitely.

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