--- title: Preventing the Next Pandemic with Organ Chips description: Don Ingber discusses how organ-on-a-chip technology helps identify, study, and combat viral variants that could cause the next pandemic. image: https://viewonline.the-scientist.com/hubfs/Organ_Chip_282A6210.jpg --- ![990x120](https://viewonline.the-scientist.com/hs-fs/hubfs/TS%20Podcasts/990x120.jpg?width=990&name=990x120.jpg "990x120") # Preventing the Next Pandemic With Organ Chips In search for strategies to curb pandemics, scientists strive to understand how pathogens slip past the immune system and wreak havoc on the body. To achieve this goal, researchers study viral infection in models that mimic how different cell types interact with each other, the immune system, or the environment. Organ-on-a-chip models combine tissue engineering with microfluidics to replicate an organ’s biological and biomechanical context. Lung chips have proven instrumental for studying viral evolution, identifying drug-resistant variants, and screening for new drugs that could prevent these variants from initiating the next pandemic. In this episode, Nele Haelterman from *The Scientist’s* Creative Services Team spoke with Don Ingber, the cell biologist who invented organ-on-a-chip technology and the founding director of the Wyss Institute for biologically inspired engineering at Harvard University, to learn more. ***Click the image below to see the organ chip in action!*** [![organ on chip](https://viewonline.the-scientist.com/hubfs/Wyss_Organ-on-a-Chip_composite.jpg)](https://viewonline.the-scientist.com/the-scientist-speaks-podcast-organ-chip-in-action)     Speaker ![Atala.jpg](https://viewonline.the-scientist.com/hubfs/Technology%20Networks/SpotMe%20Online%20Symposia/Technology%20Networks/2022/IDM%2022/D-Ingber-WebinarSpeakerImage.png "Atala.jpg") Donald E. Ingber, MD, PhD Founding Director Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital Professor of Bioengineering # Listen Now Information you provide will be held in confidence and will be shared with the sponsoring vendor(s) of this podcast. We may use the information to contact you about your account and to let you know about related programs and products; you may opt-out at any time. This allows *The Scientist* to keep these podcasts free of charge for our readers. The Scientist c/o LabX Media Group 1000 N West Street, Suite 1200, Wilmington, Delaware, United States, 19801 Toll Free: 888.788.0328 | Phone: 705.528.6888 Email: [privacy@the-scientist.com](mailto:privacy@the-scientist.com) [Privacy Policy](https://www.the-scientist.com/privacy-policy) © 1986-2022 [The Scientist](http://the-scientist.com/)   [![The Scientist Logo\_white](https://viewonline.the-scientist.com/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Scientist%20Logo_white.png?width=702&name=The%20Scientist%20Logo_white.png "The Scientist Logo_white")](https://www.the-scientist.com) The Scientist needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out our [Privacy Policy.](https://www.the-scientist.com/privacy-policy)