Organ-on-Chip

Plug and play plastic chips

Sample loading

Microphysiological connection

Plastic microfluidic chips equipped with standard Luer connectors can be readily used as plug-and-play microfluidic components. By incorporating buffer layers into the chip design, sheet-like scaffolds—with or without biological samples—can be reversibly assembled and secured with embedded magnets and a hand-screw clamp. Additional openings can be introduced on the chip to facilitate sample loading and drug assays.

The schematic illustrates one example of a chip configuration suitable for microphysiological studies. In this setup, different tissues or cell types can be introduced into the upper chambers of three serial chips, each connected to an independent flow circuit. Culture medium is perfused through the lower chambers of the chips to emulate blood circulation and diffusion-based culture. Flow regulation for this system can be achieved using a dedicated control instrument (see the Microcontroller section for details) or compatible devices provided by external manufacturers. Devices for high throughput screening are also available for systematic studies.