Interdisciplinary training network for advancing Organ-on-a-chip technology in Europe (EUROoC)

Project Summary

EUROoC will create a trans-European network of application-oriented researchers fully trained in development and application of the emerging Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) technology. The field of OoCs is advancing at breath taking pace due to its potential impact in drug development and personalised treatments of disease. New researchers entering this field must be equipped with a multidisciplinary background ranging from biology to microfluidic chip engineering. EUROoC will offer the first complete and coherent European training program on OoC by gathering participants from various disciplines (Biology, Engineering, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry) in a multi-sectoral network composed of 4 companies (3 SMEs), 2 regulation entities and 10 academic institutions. EUROoC will qualify the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists for all aspects of OoC development and utilisation, including understanding of commercialisation pathways and regulatory aspects.

For more information, visit the project page: https://www.eurooc.eu/

The MSCA ITN "EUROoC" ended in November 2022

Role of the EMBLA group

The group at Uppsala University consists of Prof Maria Tenje, Dr Susan Peacock and PhD student Gabriel Werr. As well as leading the recruitment committee, they are responsible for delivering on the microfluidic methods for bead-based assays on-chip project. In this project a microfluidic manipulation method will be developed to introduce, incubate, elute and analyse microbeads for cytokine detection in low volumes. The main working tasks of the subproject are to:

• develop a bead manipulation unit based on acoustic trapping
• integrate the bead manipulations method with organ models developed by other project partners
• perform and characterise immunoassays on-chip using the developed platform

Collaborators

• Natural and Medical Science Institute at the University Tübingen (NMI)
• Jena University Hospital, Germany
• Graz University of Technology, Austria
• University of Bern, Switzerland
• Uppsala University, Sweden
• University of Twente, The Netherlands
• Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), The Netherlands
• University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
• German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Germany
• Miltenyi Biotec, Germany
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

Publications (UU only)

Funding