In Depth: The Budding Market for Microscopic Organ Testing

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3D organ-like chips are attracting increasing interest from investors and pharmaceutical manufacturers around the world due to their promising applications in drug development and personalized health care.

A new technology combining minute, lab-grown slivers of the human body with microchips is piquing the interest of pharmaceutical companies and health care investors in China, as it offers a new and potentially lucrative type of personalized care that could disrupt the traditional drug industry.

So-called “organoids” are three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models that are able to reproduce the cellular and molecular composition of living tissue, such as an organ or a tumor. These are the basis for the aptly named “organoid-on-a-chip” technology.