Researcher’s microscale tech is chipping away at cancer, organ failure and neurological disease

Arizona State University’s Mehdi Nikkhah, a biomedical engineer in the School of Biological Health Systems Engineering (SBHSE) and a member of the Personalized Diagnostics Faculty at ASU’s Biodesign Institute, is a pioneer in Organ-on-a-Chip (OoC) technologies.

For his outstanding contributions to engineering of biomimetic tissue-on-chip technologies and organoids for disease modeling and regenerative medicine, Nikkhah was inducted as a Fellow into the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering  (AIMBE) on March 25 during the organization’s 2024 annual event in Arlington, Va.

AIMBE Fellows represent the top tier of biological engineers and include members from academia, industry, education, clinical practice and government.

“Professor Nikkhah’s research and entrepreneurship have propelled tissue-on-a-chip technology from a laboratory setting to a transformative screening tool, revealing insights into cancer and various diseases,” said Heather Clark, director of SBHSE. “Being named an AIMBE fellow marks a notable achievement, signifying his inclusion among the top two percent of the biomedical engineering community.”

Petra Fromme, Center Director & Professor, ASU Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, also was inducted as an IAMBE Fellow this year.

A primary area of research for Nikkhah, OoCs are microscopic, in vitro platforms designed to mimic the behaviors of cells, organs or complex physiological processes of the body. Tissues and cells, either engineered or patient-derived, are grown inside microfluidic chips with tiny channels that enable researchers to manipulate the environments with a high degree of control. The technology also offers a unique perspective to monitor cell behaviors in response to different therapies.

OoC microenvironments include a broad spectrum of specific medical conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, a range of cancers and neurological diseases, like Alzheimer’s.  

The Nikkhah Lab’s has developed several tumor on-chip technologies, including  rapidly growing brain cancer; metastatic breast cancer, and other disease-on-a-chip models, such as cardiovascular diseases. His team also works in the area of regenerative medicine, and combining OoCs with organoids, which are miniaturized, three-dimensional tissue constructs generated from stem cells that mimic organ function.

According to Nikkhah, OoC “has become a significant field in the past few years, with growing sources of funding and a wide range of research bringing new insights to disease prevention and treatment.”

Nikkhah was one of 95 inventors named a 2023 senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.

“We are currently working to make our microchip technologies widely accessible to the scientific and pharmaceutical communities for enhanced drug testing and accurate disease modeling,” said Nikkhah. “Hopefully in near future, with the advent of these technologies, we can bring safer and more efficient therapies to the patients.”