Fig. 1

Design process of organ-on-chip models. a The blinking eye-on-a-chip mimics the human eye through a reductionist approach by targeting the ocular surface and its relevant components, the cornea and conjunctiva, as key functional units b and coculturing these cell types over a dome-shaped scaffold. Scale bars, 1 mm (middle), 50 µm (insets). c The underlying stroma is also modelled by embedding keratocytes into the scaffold. Scale bar, 100 µm. d The unique blinking property of the eye is recapitulated through electromechanical actuation, e which creates a tear film with physiological thickness. f This design principle has been used to model other organs such as the lung, intestine, and placenta in a conventional device consisting of overlapping perfusable microchannels separated by a semiporous membrane