The role of organ-on-a-chip technology in advancing personalized medicine

Abstract

Organ-on-a-chip technology has emerged as a powerful tool to model human physiology and disease in vitro. This technology integrates microfluidic systems and cell microenvironments to create dynamic microscale devices that mimic the structure and functional unit of human organs and tissues. Organ-on-a-chip models have shown great promise in drug discovery, toxicology testing, and disease modeling. As a result, they have the potential to revolutionize personalized medicine by enabling the testing of drugs and therapies on patient-specific cells or tissues, thus improving the efficacy of treatments. This chapter provides an overview of recent advances in organ-on-a-chip technology and its applications in personalized medicine, focusing on its potential impact on cancer research. We will discuss how these microfluidic-based models can contribute to advancing individualized treatments and enabling the stratification of patients.