i3S researcher awarded for producing a stomach-on-chip

The work carried out in the last four years in the production of a stomach-in-chip, a biomimetic microfluidics system capable of reproducing the architecture and function of the human stomach, earned researcher Daniel Ferreira the prize for best oral presentation at the 12th International Meeting of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Células Estaminais e Terapia Celular (Portuguese Society of Stem Cells and Cell Therapy), which took place in March, in Braga.

The research presented by Daniel Ferreira is the result of his PhD project (BiotechHealth) developed in the i3S groups “Biofabrication”, led by Pedro Granja, and “Expression Regulation in Cancer”, led by Carla Oliveira, in collaboration with the “Thin Film MEMS and BioMEMS”, from the Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering – Microsystems and Nanotechnology (INESC-MN), in Lisbon, and the Cell Chip Group, from the Vienna University of Technology, Austria.

The lack of in vitro gastric models capable of mimicking the architecture and dynamic microenvironment of the gastric mucosa limits the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools in the area of gastric cancer. Thus, “organ-on-chip technology promises to revolutionize preclinical studies, and significantly reduce reliance on animal experimentation models, offering a human-based alternative to treating a human disease and a crucial step towards establishing a personalized medicine model”, explains the researcher.

In this work, says Daniel Ferreira, “we describe the process of creating a stomach-in-a-chip inspired by human physiology, capable of reproducing the architecture and partial function of the human gastric mucosa, as well as its dynamic nature, mimicking peristaltic movements and intraluminal. These features, which are essential for gastric barrier function, are commonly lost in a 2D cell culture environment”.

The stomach-in-a-chip developed, he emphasizes, “represents a tool with potential applicability in a personalized medicine context, as a biorelevant tool to study gastric disease”.
For the researcher, this award represents “an important recognition of the results of an ambitious project that brought together a multidisciplinary team, around a central problem in the area of biomedicine. It is important to find alternatives to animal experimentation that replicate human physiology and allow a greater success rate in the transposition of innovative drugs and therapeutics into the clinic”. This award, adds Daniel Ferreira, “comes at the end of my doctoral work and will certainly serve to strengthen my determination to seek a scientific career in the field of biotechnology and in the development of new tools for the study of the various aspects of gastric disease”.