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What could replace animal testing – ‘Human-on-a-chip’ from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The iCHIP research, Moya said, could have implications for creating new drugs to fight cancer, vaccines or evaluating the efficacy of countermeasures against biowarfare agents.

Lab scientist Heather Enright is leading research into the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which connects the brain to the limbs and organs. The PNS device has arrays of microelectrodes embedded on glass, where primary human dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons are seeded. Chemical stimuli such as capsaicin (to study pain response) then flow through a microfluidic cap to stimulate the cells on the platform.

The microelectrodes record electrical signals from the cells, allowing researchers to determine how the cells are responding to the stimuli non-invasively. Microscopic images can be acquired at the same time to monitor changes in intracellular ion concentrations, such as calcium. This platform is the first to demonstrate that long-term culture and chemical interrogation of primary human DRG neurons on microelectrode arrays is possible, presenting researchers with an advantage over current techniques.

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http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/human-chip-could-replace-animal-testing