A coin-sized device created by a team at Harvard University mimics the structure and physiology of the human intestine by supporting gut microbes and imitating the organ's rhythmic motion. Donald Ingber and his colleagues at the Wyss Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, built the chip (pictured) out of a clear polymer. It contains two microscopic fluid channels separated by a porous, flexible membrane. Human gut epithelial cells, which line the gut's surface, cover the membrane and supported the growth of a common gut bacterium, Lactobacillus rhamnosus.
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