Over £200K was awarded to fund ten pump-priming projects from the Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies Network in a very competitive final funding round. The primary goal of this award is to help network members leverage additional funding to drive forward their research in organ-on-a-chip technology and predictive in vitro models. Therefore, successful projects needed show both high quality research proposals as well as clear plans on how this award will help support applications for future major grants.

The following successful projects have been awarded funding:

Streptococcus pneumoniae infection on a human lung-on-chip model: Caroline Weight (PI), University College London

3D Printed Vascularised Polymer Scaffolds: Towards a Womb-on-a-Chip Model to Study Human Embryo Implantation: Ahmed Eissa (PI), University of Warwick

Engineering vascularised pancreatic islets on a chip to report on the functional connectivity of insulin-producing beta cells: Victoria Salem (PI), Imperial College London

Feasibility study to assess the use of organ-on-a-chip technology for optimization of radiotherapy cancer treatment: Giuseppe Schettino (PI), University of Surrey

Adenomyosis-on-a-chip: a microfluidic 3D model of the endometrial-myometrial junction (EMJ): Mairi Sandison (PI), University of Strathclyde

Emulate-Bladder: A new dynamic in vitro human bladder model: Mark Chambers (PI), University of Surrey

TEER imaging platform for OOAC: spatially resolved TEER measurement at the cellular level: Jerome Charmet (PI), University of Warwick

Design of a microfluidics device for studies of breast cancer metastasis and tissue-resident macrophages induced niche priming: Justin Stebbing (PI), Imperial College London

Feeling the force: Enhancing OOAC capability for biomechanical assessment and application: Pierre Bagnaninchi (PI), The University of Edinburgh

Development of a multi-scale microfluidic tissue platform for modelling complex vascular and immune functions: John Connelly (PI), Queen Mary University of London

The network director, Hazel Screen, was delighted with the response to the final funding call: 'We received 27 excellent applications from network members which meant some difficult decisions when it came to our final selection. Our final round projects are focussing on: platform fabrication; microfluidics, development of new organ-chip models to recapitulate human physiology and disease; and assessment tools looking at physiological and mechanical function and treatment.'

Please see all OOACTN funded research projects on the pump-priming project webpage.

The network is part of a major new Research Councils UK (RCUK) venture called Technology Touching Life [1] involving joint research council funding, which aims to foster interdisciplinary research into innovative technology in the health and life sciences.

If you are interested to find out more about the network, please visit our website www.organonachip.org.uk

https://www.ukri.org/research/cross-organisational-themes-and-programmes/technology-touching-life/