Could This Tiny Chip Put An End To The Horror Of Animal Testing?

Scientists from theUniversity of Harvard have developed a chip which recreates the functioning of human organs. Apiece of technology which could put and end to the atrocities of animal testing.This smallblockof clear plasticwith tiny connecting tubes is not your average microchip. Rather it's the future of medicine.

^Source^{: @Wyss Institute/Design Museum}The chip simulatesthe exact biological processes inside the human lung. Lined with living human cells (of a lung), the chip can simulate the processes of breathing.By running air through one side and a blood-like solution through the other, while applying a flexing and stretching motion using a vacuum, it mimics the process of respiration.Don Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute, announced he has already developed a number of different "organs-on-chips".A kidney and a liver. A skin-on-a-chip replica is currently under development.

^Source^{: @Wyss Institute/Design Museum}

More reliable and precise results

Providing a study support a lot closer to the biological reality of the human body, thistechnology would also fill the scientific gapfrom animal testing.Don Ingber explains:

We now have a window on the molecular-scale activities going on in human organs, including things that happen in human cells that don’t occur in animals. Most drug companies get completely different results in dogs, cats, mice and humans, but now they will be able to test the specific effects of drugs with greater accuracy and speed.

^{Source :}^@SoCuriousIn the future, the different organs couldbe joined up in a network and would provide a complete simulated replica of the human body.Ingber goes on to say:

We won’t be able to model consciousness, or the effect of gravity on your joints, but the next step is developing a truly personalised medicine. A drug which can be tested on your lung, or your brain, not a dog’s.

^{Source :}^{@Forcechangecom}

Hope for millions of animals subjected to animal testing

And it doesn't stop there. This good piece of news also affects millions of animals who are the victims of scientific research. In Europe, animal testing claims the lives of over12 million victims every year. Around 4 million animals are experimented on inside British laboratories.The group Animal Aid has been campaign peacefully against all forms of animal abuse and promoting cruelty-free living for decades. If you would like to support them, please follow this link.

^{Featured image :}^@lydiefarnir

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Andrea A.

3/11/2015