Retina on a Chip

Image courtesy of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Biotechnology is ever evolving, with breakthroughs enabling researchers to more efficiently translate data produced in the lab to human need. The advent of the organ-on-chip (OOC) technology represents one such breakthrough – and now researchers at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany, have combined OOC and human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to develop a retina-on-a-chip model to help determine the effectiveness of gene therapy vectors (1). 

The group grows human iPSCs into 3D retinal organoids – containing all the cells of the retina in a mini-organ. These are contained within the chambers of a fluidic device (the chip), which allows imaging and feeding of the tissue. The researchers used the model to analyze the function and potency of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors – with correlating in vivo data, showing the translational effectiveness of their model. The team hope the retina-on-a-chip model will be used for high-throughput screening.

Human iPSCs can be generated from skin or hair cells, which are reprogrammed to a pluripotent state, enabling further differentiation into many different cell types. By using iPSCs, personalized OOC models are possible, which allows patient specific responses to gene therapies – or any therapeutic or potentially toxic agent – to be recorded.