Welcome to this installment of Quandary This! Chemistry in the News. In this article, we look at new ways of testing human responses to different chemicals, such as potential new drugs.
In the quest to improve how we develop new medicines, scientists have turned to a new technology known as organ on a chip. These tiny devices are transforming biomedical testing by offering an ethical, efficient, and accurate alternative to traditional test methods.
Historically, drug development has relied heavily on animal testing and cell cultures to predict how a compound might behave in the human body. While these methods have provided valuable insights, they fall short of replicating the complexity of the human body. As a result, many promising drugs fail in human clinical trials due to unforeseen toxicity or lack of efficacy.
Organ-on-a-chip technology aims to streamline the testing process. These chips are small devices, usually no larger than a USB drive, that contain channels lined with living human tissue. By replicating the cells of a particular organ inside the chip, the chip can simulate the environment of the human body and provide insight into the human response to the compound being tested.
While this technology can be employed to aid in drug development, there are many other possible uses. They can be used to study disease mechanisms, test environmental toxins, and explore personalized medicine by using cells derived from individual patients.
Jump to Section:
General Questions (appropriate for all students)
Challenge 1: Literature Research
Challenge 2: Essay Investigation
Challenge 3: In-Depth Analysis
Suggested Reading
General Questions
Answer the following questions, using the C&EN article “FDA’s shift from animal testing opens doors for organoid makers” or another source of your choice.
- How have drugs traditionally been tested before performing clinical trials on humans?
- What is an organ chip?
- What is the benefit of screening drugs on an organ chip? What is the risk?
- What are two ways the article mentions to mitigate the risk of screening drugs using organ chip testing?
- What type of organization is most resistant to embracing organ chip testing?
Challenge 1: Literature Research
For Teaching Professionals: The following questions are intended to help students learn the critical skill of searching trusted sources of information, such as peer-reviewed literature, to find answers to specific questions. We encourage instructors to assign these questions to students enrolled in any introductory chemistry lab or lecture. By using literature to find the answers, students will learn to search and consume trusted scientific content with the intention of uncovering specific information. The grading is up to you, but we strongly recommend holding students accountable for presenting a clear answer to each question and accurately tying that answer to a properly cited source.
Prompt: For each of the following questions, provide an answer and cite the source of your information in ACS style. You can view citation examples and guidance in the ACS Style Quick Guide.
All the questions posed below can be answered in the journals, books, and news published by ACS Publications. While it is not the only reputable source of peer-reviewed information, the Suggested Reading list below may help you answer most, if not all, of these questions. Make sure you are logged in to your institution's library portal if you wish to search for additional sources on the ACS Publications website. (Note: not all articles deal with nickel directly. You can still use them as a reference for theoretically extracting nickel.)
- Aside from testing drugs for toxicity, what is another use for organ chips? Name five other things that can be tested.
- What are three types of sensors that can be integrated into organ chips?
- What is the main material that organ chips are made from? What is a major problem with it, and what are two alternatives?
- What is a challenge posed by a chip mimicking a lung or heart? What is an example of a material that has been used to simulate these organs?
- In the case of a multilayered organ chip, what are the layers made of? Give an example.
Challenge 2: Essay Investigation
For Teaching Professionals: The following essay question is intended to help students go one step beyond simple question and answer research. This exercise encourages students not only to consider multidisciplinary exploration around a topic but also to develop written communication skills. As with other questions in this series, the grading is up to you, but we encourage you to help students develop a clear and concise style. Where possible, utilize chemical drawing utilities or neat handwritten molecules and mechanisms. The ideal answer should take no more than one sheet of paper. The ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication can be a great reference.
Prompt: As waste becomes more of a concern, the quick disposability of organ chips adds another challenge to implementing their use more widely. Evaluate current ways of testing against widespread use of organ chips made from different materials, taking the amount of waste and recyclability (or lack thereof) as well as ease of fabrication into consideration. Give your opinion on the best course of action for future organ chip testing.
Challenge 3: In-Depth Analysis
For Teaching Professionals: The following question will challenge students to uncover understanding around the business and legal implications of technological advance. This challenge is helpful for anyone who wants to build depth of thinking and understanding around the real-world circumstances involved in the application of technology. This may include business students, journalism students, and students interested in studying business or intellectual property law.
Prompt: Many types of organs are being emulated on chips with the goal of a salable product in the testing marketplace, and they often reference primary research as building blocks for their product. For example, a patent for a lung on a chip cites several research articles, including an ACS Publications article by Bajaj et al. Given that patents are designed to secure ownership of novel discoveries and patent citations typically paint the landscape of “prior art” to demonstrate that their discovery is novel, what claim does the patent make that could be considered an advance upon the discoveries outlined in this article? (Hint: view the citation list to find the article.)
Suggested Reading
- Microfluidic Organs-on-a-Chip for Modeling Human Infectious Diseases
- From Organ-on-a-Chip to Human-on-a-Chip: A Review of Research Progress and Latest Applications
- Beyond Polydimethylsiloxane: Alternative Materials for Fabrication of Organ-on-a-Chip Devices and Microphysiological Systems
- Organ-on-a-Chip for Drug Screening: A Bright Future for Sustainability? A Critical Review
- Rapid Prototyping of Multilayer Microphysiological Systems
If you encounter content that is not free to read, please ensure you are logged into your institution’s library portal. If you still are unable to access the content you need, please recommend the content to your library or contact them directly to let them know there are articles you’d like to read.
Be the First to Receive New Quandaries!
Quandary This! Chemistry in the News is a monthly series designed to help chemistry educators and their students explore the fascinating world of chemistry as it relates to real-world events and current news stories.
Sign up for ACS Publications Education Insider and get monthly alerts for new releases in this series as well as other useful content, or you can visit the Quandary This! collection page at any time to catch up on the entire series.