FIGURE 1.

Multi-compartment lung-on-chip platform. (A) The in vitro multi-compartment platform recapitulates three key elements of the flow physiology and cellular makeup across the respiratory tract: (i) nasal passages, (ii) bronchial airways, and (iii) acinar airways, respectively. The platform’s “plug and play” modularity may be leveraged toward various benchmark in vitro assays for human host-pathogen interaction studies, including investigations of viral airborne transmission. (B) Schematic of the three individual chips (top view). From left to right: nasal, bronchial, and acinar airways, respectively. Inlets and outlets of apical chambers are designated with light blue, and reservoir chambers marked with pink circles (reservoir inlets and outlets are not shown in the figure). (C) Example of the side view for the nasal chip, composed of (1) an apical PDMS layer that captures relevant nasal passages (see top view in B); (2) a polyester-based (PET) porous membrane between apical and basal layers, where epithelial cells are grown; (3) a basal PDMS layer containing a fluidic reservoir to supply media and essential nutrients needed for cell culture.