Alternatives to Animal Testing, Experimentation and Dissection Articles from All-Creatures.org

Disc-on-a-chip could revolutionize treatment for back pain

From CAARE Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research
July 2023

Utilizing human-relevant methods like the disc-on-a-chip will allow researchers to make advancements into human health and disease research that is not possible with inapplicable and cruel animal experiments.

A team of scientists at the University of Technology Sydney led by Javad Tavakoli, Ph.D. have created the world’s first disc-on-a-chip organ model that can be used to study low back pain.

Traditional models, such as animal discs, don’t fully recapitulate human discs and raise serious ethical concerns.

The disc-on-a-chip is a microfluidic platform derived from human cells that is combined with precision additive manufacturing and two-photon polymerization technology that allows it to closely mimic actual human discs in function, cell morphology, and stiffness gradients.

Utilizing human-relevant methods like the disc-on-a-chip will allow researchers to make advancements into human health and disease research that is not possible with inapplicable animal studies.

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