Placenta-on-a-chip

A ‘placenta-on-a-chip’ has been developed by a team from the US National Institute of Health and researchers in and South Korea  The device has been designed to imitate, on a micro-level, the structure and function of the placenta, as well as model the transfer of nutrients from mother to fetus.  It consists of a semi-permeable membrane between two tiny chambers, one filled with maternal cells derived from a delivered placenta and the other filled with foetal cells taken from an umbilical cord.  This is the latest in a series of “organ-on-a-chip” technologies which is hoped to help accelerate biomedical advances.

Roberto Romero, chief of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Perinatology Research Branch and one of the study authors said, “The chip may allow us to do experiments more efficiently and at a lower cost than animal studies…With further improvements, we hope this technology may lead to better understanding of normal placental processes and placental disorders.”

For more information see the RCM report here

An article from Engineering and Technology Magazine can be viewed here