
[Update 5/18/15: According to a Wyss Institute press release, the Design Museum in London has selected the organs-on-chips as the winner of their 2015 Designs of the Year exhibition’s Product category.]
If you’re in New York City in the next few months, pop into the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and stop by the “This Is For Everyone: Design For The Common Good” exhibit. There—alongside displays dedicated to the “@” symbol, the pin icon from Google Maps and bricks made from living mushroom roots—you’ll find three small silicone blocks mounted on a wall panel.
Those blocks are actually three of the organs-on-chips developed in the lab of Donald Ingber, MD, PhD, founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and a scientist in Boston Children’s Hospital’s Vascular Biology Program.
Earlier this month, MoMA announced its plans to include the chips as part of their exploration of contemporary design in the digital age. In the museum’s eyes, organs-on-chips are more than a way to model disease in a complex, living system—they’re also art. …