A silicone chip that mimics living human organs

Silicon chips that mimic the function of living human organs have won the Design of the Year award from the Design Museum in London. Scientists at Harvard University's Wyss Institute placed human cells from different tissues on to the chips to study how the different organs worked. Their lung-on-a-chip contracts and relaxes, as the lungs would, as air is passed over the cells. The devices could provide an alternative to animal testing for drug development. Professor Donald Ingber, from Harvard Medical School told Newshour how they work.

(Pic: Harvard Wyss Institute)