The ARTORG Organs-on-Chip Facility (OOCF) provides researchers at the University of Bern, the Inselspital and beyond with the infrastructure to fabricate microfluidic devices and to culture and test organs-on-chip. It is part of the ARTORG Organs-on-Chip Technologies laboratory headed by Prof. Olivier Guenat, and draws on equipment built up there over fifteen years at the interface of engineering, microfluidics and cell biology, in particular for soft lithography and for organ-on-chip operation.
The facility comprises two laboratories at the ARTORG Center, Murtenstrasse 50, 3008 Bern: the BioMEMS laboratory and the OOC Culture laboratory. Access requires prior contact with the respective laboratory manager. The OOCF is recognised by the Swiss National Science Foundation, so principal investigators holding an SNSF grant are eligible for reimbursement of user fees.
An automated organ-on-chip culture and imaging platform (ACTIO), combining robotic plate handling with confocal imaging, has recently been installed and will become available to users in due course.
