Symposium to Focus on Advancements in Organ-on-a-Chip Research

The daylong event, the eighth in the series since the partnership was formed in 2006, is titled Organ-on-a-Chip and will run from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Martin Jischke Hall of Biomedical Engineering, Room 2001.

Ali Khademhosseini, an associate professor at Harvard-MIT's Division of Health Sciences and Technology, the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, will deliver the keynote address titled "Microengineered Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering" at 3:30 p.m.

Organizers of the annual symposium include Bindley Bioscience Center, Birck Nanotechnology Center, the School of Biomedical Engineering and Discovery Park as well as the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). The event is free and open to the Purdue campus and general public.

"Microfluidic systems are now being developed to model biological environments and physically mimic biological tissues and organs," said symposium co-organizer James Leary, SVM Professor of Nanomedicine and professor of basic medical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and professor of biomedical engineering in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

"Such 'organs-on-a-chip' methods, which are the focus of this year's Purdue-KIST symposium, could have an important role in expediting early stages of drug discovery and help reduce reliance on animal testing. It's exciting for Purdue to be a part of this important conversation in the areas of research and learning."

Organ-on-a-chip is a multichannel 3-D microfluidic cell culture chip that simulates the activities, mechanics and physiological response of entire organs and organ systems, opening the door for using this approach instead of animals in drug development and other testing.