Humans and Organs on Chips: Modeling the Body in the Translational Age

• In Event: Emergent Technologies in Biomedicine and Healthcare: Boundaries, Tensions, and Possibilities - I

Abstract

In response to contemporary concerns about the efficacy and adequacy of animal models in biomedicine, bioengineers have developed organ chip platforms to model human organ systems using microfluidic systems made from human cells. Bioengineers, biomedical scientists, and funders are increasingly hopeful that these technologies can eventually replace animal models in pharmaceutical and biomedical research. Organ chips are seen as potentially bridging the model-to-human gap because of their use of human cells and ability to engineer different bodily environments. As such, these technologies have attracted major public and private investment in recent years. As these technologies gain more traction, they carry with them the potential to deeply influence how human differences are modeled and interpreted, as well as how university-industry relationships are configured. Drawing on content analysis, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic observation, this paper extends STS scholarship examining the construction and institutionalization of scientific models, through its examination of a modeling technology that stands to displace deeply standardized research tools and disrupt longstanding research infrastructures. Second, this paper extends literature on the scientific construction and reproduction of human difference by carefully investigating how understandings of human difference are translated into the design of emerging high-tech technologies.

Author

• Melanie Jeske, University of California, San Francisco