This ‘organ-on-a-chip’ is about the size of a US quarter
Scientists have designed a tiny ‘organ-on-a-chip’ that replicates early pregnancy, when the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus. The small device is made of clear silicone rubber and has two chambers: one to hold placental cells and one for tiny 3D blood vessels. A barrier runs between the two chambers and mimics the uterine tissue that would run beneath an embryo implanted in the womb. The team used the device to observe how trophoblasts, cells that help the embryo attach to the uterus and later form part of the placenta, migrate towards uterine blood vessels prior to the embryo’s implantation.