Flamin-go’s researcher Estrela Neto from i3S has presented a talk titled “Organ-on-a-chip: advantages and challenges” for the Marie-Curie project BonePainII: “A European Training Network to Combat Bone Pain”. She presented organ-on-a-chip to students. This is further fostering the collaboration of different projects involved in training highly skilled researchers within bone pain and making the foundation for improved therapies.
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Within a controlled platform, the cells’ microenvironment can be replicated to analyse at micro scale signalling pathways and molecular interactions. In these chips patient-derived cells will be used. Therefore, these chips are a step forward towards personalised medicine. With organ-on-a-chip created from patient cells, we avoid the use of model organisms usually used in the in vivo studies of medical treatments. Since the cells are unique to each patient the results are highly clinically relevant.
Microfluidics, the manipulation of fluids on a small scale, are used in both the European projects: BONEPAIN II and FLAMIN-GO. This technique serves as a valuable tool to mimic complex microenvironments and unravel potential cellular and molecular mechanisms to develop new targets and therapeutic targets.
Estrela Neto believes that the excellence of these projects, research and researchers will culminate in valuable advances in the field, providing a clearer understanding of the pathologies and ultimately and most importantly in improving the care provided to the patients.