This week we are travelling to Paris to attend the kick off of a challenging European project called “Heart On chip based on induced pluripotent Stem cell Technology for personalized Medicine”.
The main goal of this project is to create a heart on a chip model by using microfluidics and developing a platform for cardiomyocytes-iPSCs. These human-induced pluripotent stem cells are very useful in OoC devices because they are derived in a patient-matched manner making them a great element for personalized medicine.

The consortium consists on seven companies and institutions from Europe and United States with the leadership of Biosense Institute in Serbia. Apart from them there are two French biotech enterprises, Cherry Biotech and Elvesys SAS, and 3 important Universities: Rutgers New Jersey (United States), Jagiellonski (Poland) and Zaragoza, where the group that made Beonchip possible will be also involved. It´s a great opportunity to network between us because the project includes some visits to the other participants to share our knowledge in some technical and entrepreneurial topics, so in the next years a member of our team will spend some months around the world trying to learn as much as possible from some of these great professionals.

Right now we are involved in two European projects, Heart on Chip and Bone on Chip (with two leading Dutch institutions), where we will help to create these new “organ on chips” that would lead us to a fastest and cheapest way to develop drugs.

Cell fixation, staining and immunostaining in a chip.

Introduction Cell fixation and immunostaining are critical techniques in cell biology and biomedical research. Cell fixation is the process of immobilising cells in a particular state, preserving their morphology, and preventing any further changes. This is crucial...

Organoids on chip

What is an organoid and why use it in research? There has been an increasing shift towards the development of 3D cell culture models in attempts to create an increased complexity that can be compared with the in vivo better than 2D models. From the different 3D...

BE-Transflow device as an epithelium-on-a-chip model for permeability studies

Researchers from the University of Zaragoza have employed the Be-Transflow device to develop a stratified epithelia-on-a-chip model, highlighting this device as a useful platform for permeability studies.     Replicating the permeability of a tissue barrier is pivotal...

BE-Gradient Barrier-Free applications: Hydrogel confinement and diffusion profile

Introduction Our new design BE-Gradient Barrier-Free is a device designed for 3D culture where a central chamber is linked with two fluidic lateral channels (Figure 1). The innovation we present is the absence of any physical barrier between the central chamber and...

BE-Doubleflow App. notes: Gut-on-chip 2

Introduction In our previous technical note “BE-Doubleflow App. notes: Gut-on-chip 1” we explored our device BE-Doubleflow for gut-on-a-chip (GOC) models in collaboration with AINIA. In that note we compared our device with an insert platform with GOC outperforming...