Microchipping Humans For Medicine Trials

We all live in the world full of futuristic ideas and even faster developing technology. Shockingly, it has been 25 years since the internet was invented, but few can remember a time when they needed to open a book, written by a publishing company, that had to be approved and actually written. The whole process would take months. We now have diseases being treated through vaccines made in less time. The technological world is fascinating, much like the human body.  In the last century humans have merged technology with medicine including hip replacements, stints, the pacemaker, and far more advancements.

Researchers at Harvard have developed an implantable microchip for the human body that molds with cells. This medical breakthrough is described by Mary-Ann Russon in the article “Human Organs-on-Chips: Harvard Develops Microchips Lined with Living Cells to Revolutionize Medicine,” found in the International Business Times. Russon describes the chip as “made from a clear flexible polymer that contains hollow microfluidic channels that are lined with living human cells.” She says that, “together with an interface that lines the interior surface of blood vessel and lymphatic vessels,” can mimic the walls of organs and organ systems, “such as the lungs, kidneys, skin, bone marrow, intestines and blood-brain barrier,” just to name a few. Currently these chips are used to see how drugs affect cells not found in the body.

Russon ends the article hoping that one of the next directions to go in with cells is to make actual organs out of them. If this is even possible it could solve the crisis of those who wait for transplants, and can treat their ailments quicker and increase their longevity.

 

Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/human-organs-chips-harvard-develops-microchips-lined-living-cells-revolutionise-medicine-1601367