Chips Advance Toxicology Testing

Chips—not potato chips or corn chips, but miniature systems containing living cells—can be used to test the effects of drugs, chemicals, and foods on human physiology and health. These organs-on-chips are transparent, flexible, domino-shaped polymeric systems (about the size of a thumb drive) that contain living cells of human organs. They are part of what Emulate Inc. calls its Human Emulation System.

According to Suzanne Fitzpatrick, senior advisor for toxicology at the Center for F…