Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies and Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Organ-on-a-chip (OOAC) technology is revolutionizing disease modeling, drug screening, and precision medicine by combining engineered mesoscopic or microscopic (fluidic) devices with living cells, biosensors, and big data analysis, offering the possibility to replicate in vivo microenvironment and physiological/pathological conditions in vitro, which is a promising alternative to the use of animals in academia and industry for improved efficacy, authenticity, and cost-effectiveness.

It originated from the 3R (replacement/refinement/reduction of animal testing) concept in Europe in the mid-20th century. After nearly two decades of rapid development, by integrating upstream biosensing and nanotechnology, downstream multi-omics analysis and information technology, it has expanded from a simple microfluidic tool to an integrated platform with more and more opportunities to facilitate the study of disease mechanisms, preclinical drug design, and future personalized medicine in an in vitro animal-free manner.

Therefore, this Special Issue aims to present research papers, communications and review articles, focusing on: (1) novel designs/fabrications/materials adopted in OOAC; (2) new/intelligent approaches to develop different types of 3D organs/tissues/organoid chips or multi-organ platforms; (3) integrated applications of OOAC platforms with various other technologies (artificial intelligence/multi-omics/biosensors/mathematical modeling etc.), which will help us to discover human physiological/pathological mechanisms, benefit toxicity/biosafety assessment and improve preclinical drug design and future precision medicine.

Prof. Dr. Fan-Gang Tseng
Dr. Yun-Jie Hao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• micro/meso-fluidic chip/device
• tissue/organ/organoid-on-a-chip
• in vitro platform
• micro-physiological interface/system
• pathological (disease) models
• drug screening
• toxicity
• biosafety assessment
• pharmaceutical or therapeutic development
• personalized medicine
• 3R
• biosensor
• big data
• artificial intelligence
• mathematical modelling