Democratizing Organ-on-Chip Technologies with a Modular, Reusable, and Perfusion-Ready Microphysiological System

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Cell Biology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Organ-on-chip (OOC) technologies, or microphysiological systems (MPS), offer improved dynamic microenvironments compared to static cultures.
• Widespread adoption of OOC/MPS is limited by fabrication complexity, reliance on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and poor modularity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a modular MPS platform designed for ease of use, reproducibility, and broad applicability.
• To overcome the limitations of current OOC/MPS fabrication and modularity.

Main Methods:

• Developed a modular MPS platform with layered elastomeric inserts for dual monolayer cell culture.
• Utilized a reusable acrylic cassette for perfusion studies, decoupling model establishment from flow experiments.
• Validated the system with dual epithelial and endothelial cell co-cultures under static and perfused conditions.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated shear-induced alignment of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) under perfusion.
• Confirmed material biocompatibility and high manufacturing fidelity via vinyl cutting reproducibility.
• Supported reliable long-term culture (up to 14 days) with uniform seeding and imaging access.

Conclusions:

• The modular MPS platform simplifies OOC/MPS development, enabling parallelized experimentation and minimizing pump usage.
• This generalizable platform is suitable for labs lacking microfabrication infrastructure, democratizing advanced in vitro model systems.
• Facilitates diverse organ system modeling and serves as a foundational framework for tissue-chip development.