London Design Museum Product Award Given To Human Organs On Chips
Human Organs on Chips was hailed as winner of the 2015 Designs of the Year under the Product Design category. The invention was conceptualized by researchers Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh’s under the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. The device can be used as an alternative to drug testing methods wherein tiny microchips with human cells mimic the complex tissue structure of human organs.
The award giving body, organized by London’s Design Museum, is now in its eighth year and has received a total of 76 total nominees in six different categories- Architecture, Fashion, Transport, Product, Digital and Graphics Design. Its jury is composed of experts in design including professionals, curators and those from the academe.
According to US News Wire, Wyss’ human organs on chips were up against 22 product designs. Other nominees in the category included Project Daniel, a laboratory that works on providing 3D-printed prosthetic arms for children in war-torn Sudan; Dragonfly, a chair inspired by insects with an asymmetric form; QardioArm, a personal heart monitor, and a variety of other entries ranging from education, gaming to battling out air pollution.
Emulate, the startup company that has commercialized the Organs-on-Chips, has been working on the project from Wyss Institute. In a report from Business Wire, David Edwards, Ph.D. and a member of Emulate’s Scientific Board said, “Emulate has elegantly integrated biology, engineering and design to create Organs-on-Chips that mimic human biological function and create a new paradigm that can profoundly impact human health.”
Each chip, approximately the size of a memory stick, can carry tens of thousands of human cells aligned within its hollow channels. It can help recreate the biology of a human being by copying the dynamics of the organs within a cellular level. With the Organs-on-Chips, the work will have unparalleled precision, reproducibility and control. The product won based on three workings representations of the device- Lung-on-Chip, Gut-on-Chip, and Liver-on-Chip.
The other winners for this year’s Design of the Year Awards as featured in Dezeen, the media partner of the 2015 Designs of the Year awards, are: Google’s self-driving car (Transport category); The Ocean Cleanup (Digital category); UC Innovation Center (Architecture category); Thomas Tait AW13/14 (Fashion category), and Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables (Graphics category).
The overall winner for the Design of the Year 2015 will be announced summer of 2015. The winners’, along with the nominees’, works are currently exhibited at the Design Museum in London until 23 August 2015.