Gut-on-a-chip

Sensorised cell-laden microfluidic devices to replicate the functionality of the human gastro-intestinal tract. The INL Gut-Chip provides a faithful representation of the human intestinal epithelial barrier. The device houses two parallel microchannels separated by a flexible, semi-permeable membrane where human cells either from immortalised or primary sources, are cultured to form a cohesive epithelium. The top and bottom channels represent the intestinal lumen and

microvasculature, respectively. Patterned sensors provide real-time sensing of barrier integrity by measuring electric impedance across the epithelium. Automated control allows high user-independent reproducibility, spatiotemporal resolution of stimuli delivery and outflow sampling.

The devices offer the capacity to be coupled to upstream gastrointestinal simulators also developed at INL for comprehensive bioaccessibility and bioavailability studies.