Organs-on-chips win ‘Design of the Year’

The Wyss Institute’s human organs-on-chips, represented by the human lung, gut, and liver chips, have won the overall Design of the Year 2015 Award, which is the United Kingdom’s most prestigious design award. The honor was revealed during the annual Design of the Year awards ceremony, held on the evening of June 22 at the Design Museum of London, which marked the culmination of the 8th annual awards and museum exhibition.

Wyss Institute Senior Staff Scientist Anthony Bahinski, who has been instrumental to the development and translation of the technology, attended the awards ceremony and accepted the award on behalf of Wyss Founding Director Donald E. Ingber and former Wyss Technology Development Fellow Dan Dongeun Huh, who collaborated and first designed the initial human organ-on-a-chip in 2010.

“This is an extremely meaningful moment, as the intersection of science and design has been a constant source of inspiration throughout my career,” said Ingber. “To have the microscopic elegance and function of human organs-on-chips recognized in an international design forum is a powerful testament to the breadth and depth at which design principles contribute to biological function as well as technological advancement, and it is a recognition for which I am deeply honored to receive on behalf of the Wyss Institute.”