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This cross-journal collection on “Microphysiological Systems” is a collaboration between Nature Communications, Communications Biology, Communications Engineering and Scientific Reports. Microphysiological Systems feature the culture of cells, tissues or organoids inside of biomimetic microfluidic devices that aim to recapitulate the circulation and interconnection between different organs found within the human body. These platforms modeling (patho)physiological processes promise to revolutionize basic research as well as drug development and screening, while enabling personalized medicine and reducing our reliance on animal experiments. Within this field, we look forward to seeing submissions on the sub-topics of, but not exclusively on, Engineering Advances, Modeling Biological Phenomena, and Modelling Disease & Drug Testing.
The functional heterogeneity of autophagy in endothelial cells during angiogenesis remains incompletely understood. Here, the authors apply a 3D angiogenesis-on-a-chip coupled with single-cell RNA sequencing to find distinct autophagy functions in two different endothelial cell populations during angiogenic sprouting.
Nguyen and colleagues report a microfluidic platform with a ladder shaped design which identifies bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics in less than 5 h. The device could assist physicians and veterinarians to make more targeted and rapid prescriptions for antibiotic infections.
Skin-nerve crosstalk is a major element of skin physiological pathology. Here the authors report a 3D innervated epidermal keratinocyte layer as a sensory neuron-epidermal keratinocyte coculture model on a microfluidic chip using the slope-based air-liquid interfacing culture and spatial compartmentalization.
Normal and abnormal pregnancy is challenging to study and involves complex interactions between maternal and fetal cells. Here the authors present an implantation-on-a-chip device capable of modeling trophoblast invasion, a process critical to the establishment of pregnancy.