Brief
New organ‑on‑a‑chip technologies aim to replace animal testing in drug research
Innovations such as Emulate’s Lung‑on‑a‑Chip demonstrate how human‑cell models could reduce reliance on animal experiments.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Emerging organ‑on‑a‑chip technologies are being promoted as potential replacements for animal testing in biomedical research, Spectrum reported on 29 September 2026.
The article highlights Emulate’s Lung‑on‑a‑Chip, a microfluidic device that mimics human lung movement and responses to inflammatory proteins, bacteria and silica nanoparticles. The system, first demonstrated by Donald Ingber’s team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, was initially rejected by the journal Science, which asked for mouse‑based validation before publication in 2010.
Since then, the technology has been adopted by companies such as Germany’s TissUse, which builds organ‑on‑a‑chip platforms for pharmaceutical testing. A recent interaction described by TissUse executive Ilka Maschmeyer involved a drug developer denied a U.S. FDA trial, turning to chip‑based testing as an alternative.
Key facts
- Emulate’s Lung‑on‑a‑Chip replicates breathing motions and reacts to inflammatory stimuli like a real lung. (spectrum.ieee.org)
- The original lung‑on‑a‑chip was developed by Donald Ingber’s team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute and published in Science in 2010 after additional mouse experiments. (spectrum.ieee.org)
- German biotech TissUse now commercialises organ‑on‑a‑chip systems used by pharmaceutical companies. (spectrum.ieee.org)
Sources
- [1] spectrum.ieee.org — originally reported as “Can New Technologies Finally Replace Animal Testing?”
