Donald E. Ingber, MD, PhD

Founding Director, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University

Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology, Harvard Medical School & Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children’s Hospital

Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Organ-on-a-chip (Organ Chip) microfluidic devices lined with living human cells that form tissue-tissue interfaces, reconstitute vascular perfusion and organotypic mechanical cues, integrate immune cells, contain living microbiome, and recapitulate human organ-level physiology and pathophysiology with high fidelity. Work will be presented describing how single human Organ Chips and multi-organ human Body-on-Chips systems have been used to model complex diseases and rare genetic disorders, study host-microbiome interactions, both mimic and quantitatively predict drug pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters, recapitulate whole body inter-organ physiology, and reproduce human clinical responses to drugs, radiation, toxins, and infectious pathogens. Human Organ Chips also have been used to gain new insight into mechanisms of host immunity to viral infections and in combination with CRISPR and siRNA screens, as well as artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled drug repurposing, to develop new therapeutics for potential pandemic respiratory viruses (e.g., influenza, SARS-CoV-2), cancer, and acute radiation syndrome. Results confirming that human Organ Chip models of drug-induced liver injury are significantly more accurate than animal models at predicting human toxicity responses will also be presented. My message is that the possibility that human Organ Chips can be used in lieu of animal models for drug development and as living avatars for personalized medicine is coming ever closer to becoming a reality.