Microfluidic organ-on-a-chip models of human liver tissue.

A critical review on quantum dots: From synthesis toward applications in electrochemical biosensors for determination of disease-related biomolecules.

Biofabrication of natural hydrogels for cardiac, neural, and bone Tissue engineering Applications

Cancer is one of the leading causes of human death, despite enormous efforts to explore cancer biology and develop anticancer therapies. The main challenges in cancer research are establishing an efficient tumor microenvironment in vitro and exploring efficient means for screening anticancer drugs to reveal the nature of cancer and develop treatments. The tumor microenvironment possesses human-specific biophysical and biochemical factors that are difficult to recapitulate in conventional in vitro planar cell models and in vivo animal models. Therefore, model limitations have hindered the translation of basic research findings to clinical applications. In this review, we introduce the recent progress in tumor-on-a-chip devices for cancer biology research, medicine assessment, and biomedical applications in detail. The emerging tumor-on-a-chip platforms integrating 3D cell culture, microfluidic technology, and tissue engineering have successfully mimicked the pivotal structural and functional characteristics of the in vivo tumor microenvironment. The recent advances in tumor-on-a-chip platforms for cancer biology studies and biomedical applications are detailed and analyzed in this review. This review should be valuable for further understanding the mechanisms of the tumor evolution process, screening anticancer drugs, and developing cancer therapies, and it addresses the challenges and potential opportunities in predicting drug screening and cancer treatment.

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Tumor-on-a-chip: from bioinspired design to biomedical application.

Despite the progress achieved in nanomedicine during the last decade, the translation of new nanotechnology-based therapeutic systems into clinical applications has been slow, especially due to the lack of robust preclinical tissue culture platforms able to mimic the in vivo conditions found in the human body and to predict the performance and biotoxicity of the developed nanomaterials. Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) platforms are novel microfluidic tools that mimic complex human organ functions at the microscale level. These integrated microfluidic networks, with 3D tissue engineered models, have been shown high potential to reduce the discrepancies between the results derived from preclinical and clinical trials. However, there are many challenges that still need to be addressed, such as the integration of biosensor modules for long-time monitoring of different physicochemical and biochemical parameters. In this review, recent advances on OoC platforms, particularly on the preclinical validation of nanomaterials designed for cancer, as well as the current challenges and possible future directions for an end-use perspective are discussed.

Organ‐on‐a‐Chip: A Preclinical Microfluidic Platform for the Progress of Nanomedicine

The organ-on-a-chip (OOAC) is in the list of top 10 emerging technologies and refers to a physiological organ biomimetic system built on a microfluidic chip. Through a combination of cell biology, engineering, and biomaterial technology, the microenvironment of the chip simulates that of the organ in terms of tissue interfaces and mechanical stimulation. This reflects the structural and functional characteristics of human tissue and can predict response to an array of stimuli including drug responses and environmental effects. OOAC has broad applications in precision medicine and biological defense strategies. Here, we introduce the concepts of OOAC and review its application to the construction of physiological models, drug development, and toxicology from the perspective of different organs. We further discuss existing challenges and provide future perspectives for its application.

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Organ-on-a-chip: recent breakthroughs and future prospects

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary bone malignancy that affects children and young adults. OS is characterized by a high degree of malignancy, strong invasiveness, rapid disease progression, and extremely high mortality rate; it is considered as a serious threat to the human health globally. The incidence of OS is common in the metaphysis of long tubular bones, but rare in the spine, pelvis, and sacrum areas; moreover, majority of the OS patients present with only a single lesion. OS has a bimodal distribution pattern, that is, its incidence peaks in the second decade of life and in late adulthood. We examine historical and current literature to present a succinct review of OS. In this review, we have discussed the types, clinical diagnosis, and modern and future treatment methods of OS. The purpose of this article is to inspire new ideas to develop more effective therapeutic options.

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Osteosarcoma: a review of current and future therapeutic approaches.

Microfluidic spinning, as a combination of wet spinning and microfluidic technology, has been used to develop microfibers with special structures to facilitate cell 3D culture/co-culture and microtissue formation in vitro. In this study, a simple microchip-based microfluidic spinning strategy is presented for the fabrication of multicomponent heterogeneous calcium alginate microfibers. The use of two kinds of microchip enables the one-step preparation of multicomponent heterogeneous microfibers with various arrangement patterns, including the preparation of one-, two-, and three-component microfibers by a two-layer microchip and preparation of four component microfibers with different arrangement by a membrane-sandwiched three-layer microchip. The obtained microfibers could be used to encapsulate various kinds of cells, such as the human non-small cell lung cancer cell NCI-H1650, the human fetal lung fibroblast HFL1, the normal pulmonary bronchial epithelial cell 16HBE, and human umbilical vein endothelial cells. By adding chitosan to the medium to keep the fibers stable, 3D long-term in vitro cell co-culture has been carried out up to 21 days. This method is very simple and easy to operate, continuously produces spatially well-defined heterogeneous microfibers, has important applications for composite functional biomaterials, and shows great potential in organs-on-a-chip and biomimetic systems.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mabi.201900395

Qirui Wu

Papers

Organ-on-a-chip: recent breakthroughs and future prospects

Osteosarcoma: a review of current and future therapeutic approaches.

Simple Fabrication of Multicomponent Heterogeneous Fibers for Cell Co-Culture via Microfluidic Spinning

Facile fabrication of drug-loaded PEGDA microcapsules for drug evaluation using droplet-based microchip

Exposed Mo atoms induced by micropores enhanced H2S sensing of MoO3 nanoflowers.