在医药界，新药的研发上市通常要经过漫长的动物实验和临床实验，耗资大、历时长、流程繁琐，而且动物模型往往不能模拟人体真正的环境。但器官芯片（Organs-on-a-chip）这一新技术的突破已经逐步替代了传统的新药研发流程。这项技术是基于微流控技术发展起来的一种芯片仿真人体器官系统，其基本原理是将人体细胞植入芯片，由芯片模拟人体环境形成体外模型，精确地控制多个系统参数，从而模拟人体器官的复杂结构。该技术的应用能够大大缩短药物临床前研究周期，节约人力物力，而且收集到的数据要比动物实验得到的数据真实和廉价许多。经过近几年的快速发展，国外研究者已经开发出了芯片肝、芯片肺等多种器官芯片，随着这项技术越来越多的突破，人们从这项技术上感受到了越来越多的振奋与鼓舞。
Take heart: organs on chips
① Before regulators will approve a drug for clinical trial in humans, promising compounds are tested in a laboratory, usually on animals such as rats and dogs.
② But an alternative process, using what are called "organs on a chip", has just taken a big step forward.
③ Such devices contain a colony of human cells that have been coerced into replicating the function of a particular organ.
④ Tiny pipes mimic a blood supply.
⑤ In a study this week in Nature Communications Imperial College London reported that a liver chip developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and CN Bio, a British company, responded to a hepatitis B viral infection in the same way that a real human liver would.
⑥ That shows such chips have the potential to produce data that are more realistic, and cheaper, than using laboratory animals.
⑦ Organ chips for the heart and lungs could be next.
Words & Expressions:
1. heart/take heart: n. confidence and courage
eg. This inspiring service gave us new heart.
We've got to take a bit of heart from the fact that we won.
We mustn't lose heart when people complain.
2. alternative /ɔ:lˈtə:nətɪv, ɒlˈtə:nətɪv/: adj. an alternative idea, plan etc is different from the one you have and can be used instead
eg. alternative ways/approach/methods etc
alternative approaches to learning
Have you any alternative suggestions?
An alternative route is along the Via Unione.
3. a colony of /ˈkɒləni/:
a group of people who are similar in some way and who live together, or the place where they live
an artists’ colony
a leper colony
a group of animals or plants of the same type that are living or growing together
a seal colony
breeding colonies of rare birds
4. coerce /kəʊˈɜːs $ ˈkoʊɜːrs/ verb [transitive] to force someone to do something they do not want to do by threatening them
coerce somebody into (doing) something
The rebels coerced the villagers into hiding them from the army.
▍相关背景词汇
nuclear transfer /ˈnju:klɪə/: 细胞核转移
embryo-splitting /ˈɛmbrɪəʊ/: n. 胚胎分割
identical twins /ʌɪˈdɛntɪk(ə)l/: 同卵双胞胎
fraternal twins /frəˈtəːn(ə)l/: 异卵双胞胎
hepatitis B viral infection: 乙肝病毒感染
laboratory animal /ˈlab(ə)rəˌt(ə)ri, ləˈbɒrəˌt(ə)ri/: 试验动物
