Though organ-on-a-chip experiments are gaining in popularity in drug discovery, they have rarely been used to investigate ophthalmic disease. But Hirokazu Kaji’s team from Tohoku University, Japan, believes the approach holds promise. “My group has been developing microfluidic cell culture systems for 10 years and, in collaboration with ophthalmologists, we decided to develop a model of the fundus,” says Kaji.

To better understand age-related macular degeneration (AMD) pathology, they built a simplified co-culture model of fundus tissue using a microfluidics platform. The model comprises human retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE-19s), fibronectin-coated porous membrane – to represent Bruch’s membrane – and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), playing the role of the choroid (1).