눈처럼 깜박깜박...동물실험 대체할 장기칩
Microchips that can function like a human organ... could be used to replace animal testing and make clinical trials more effective.
Park Se-young tells us more.
This eye-on-a-chip has a blinking eyelid and tears keep it moist.
This artificial eye's cornea and conjunctiva were made using human cells and function just like an actual organ.
This lung-on-a-chip can breathe by exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide.
It looks like an electronic chip but it recreates lung deflation and the environment surrounding lung cells.
Such artificial organs can be used in place of animal testing when developing new drugs.
The lead author of a study into the organ chips expects them to completely replace animal testing within 20 years.
"When an overall model replicating the human body's physiological response is created by connecting multiple organ chips, it has the possibility of reducing and replacing animal models in the long run."
Because organ chips are made using human cells, they are more efficient for testing new drugs for toxicity and studying various diseases than using animals.
"There have been cases in which toxic reactions that did not appear in animals did appear in humans. Studies this year have shown that using organ chips can predict such results."
More than 100 million animals were tested on around the world in 2018.
With over 15 kinds of organ chips already developed, these artificial organs are expected to minimize both risks and ethical concerns.
Park Se-young, Arirang News.
