The new European Organ-on-Chip Society (EUROoCS) was officially launched at the third International Organ-on-Chip Symposium, held on 8 and 9 November 2018 at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The Society will encourage development and coordination of Organ-on-Chip research in Europe in support of better health for all. Membership will be open from 2019 to all researchers in the field, providing access benefits to the pending digital Organ-on-Chip platform, the annual meeting and the future society journal.

In the presence of 180 scientists from twelve countries Christine Mummery, chair of the new Society, initiated the launch ceremony, which subtly referred to the annual light festival in Eindhoven, site of the launch, and the classical light bulb developed there a century ago. “It is a European Society but everyone worldwide is welcome to join. We are just at the early start, and there is much work to be done before we are operational and everybody can sign in. But we look forward to being the forum for this research in Europe and we are here to stay,” Janny van den Eijnden-van Raaij of hDMT says, among the first Board members of EUROoCS.

Accelerating Organ-on-Chip research

The purpose of the Society is to encourage and develop Organ-on-Chip research, and to provide opportunities to share and advance knowledge and expertise in this field towards a better health for all. EUROoCS is one of the first outcomes of the Horizon 2020 project ORCHID (Organ-on-Chip In Development), that aims to create a roadmap for Organ-on-Chip technology and to build a network of all parties involved.

Open for all researchers

Membership is open from 2019 to all researchers worldwide in the Organ-on-Chip field. The annual European Organ-on-Chip symposium will be organized in a different country in Europe each year. The next will be held in Graz, in Austria, on 2 and 3 July 2019. It will provide many opportunities for scientific discussion and interaction, and bring together young scientists with top experts in the field.

Easy connection via platform and journal
The membership will have many advantages for scientists, in particular finding collaborators via the digital Organ-on-Chip platform presently under construction, and disseminating results via the future Society journal.

The first Board members

• Christine Mummery (chair; Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands)
• Peter Loskill (vice-chair; Fraunhofer IGB Stuttgart/University of Tübingen, Germany)
• Janny van den Eijnden-van Raaij (secretary/treasurer; hDMT, the Netherlands)
• Albert van den Berg (member; University of Twente, the Netherlands)

First Board of EUROoCS (from left to right)
Albert van den Berg, Christine Mummery, Janny van den Eijnden-van Raaij and Peter Loskill.

Contact

hDMT
Dr. Janny van den Eijnden – van Raaij
T: +31 6 1299 8074
E: j.vandeneijnden@hdmt.technology

About Organ-on-Chip systems

An Organ-on-Chip is a fit-for-purpose microfluidic device, containing living engineered organ substructures in a controlled microenvironment, that recapitulates one or more aspects of the organ’s dynamics, functionality and (patho)physiological response in vivo under real-time monitoring.
Organ-on-chip models are expected to result in a paradigm shift for healthcare leading to new ways to elucidate disease mechanisms, identify effective drugs and improve health by prevention and personalized cure of many diseases.

About ORCHID

The ORCHID project (Organ-on-Chip development) is an EU initiative, coordinated by Leiden University Medical Center and the Dutch Organ-on-Chip consortium hDMT in The Netherlands. The main goal of ORCHID is to create a roadmap for Organ-on-Chip technology and to build a network of all relevant stakeholders in this promising innovative field. In the ORCHID project that started on 1 October 2017 in total seven leading European research institutions are involved.
website : H2020-ORCHID.eu
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 766884.

About hDMT

hDMT is a pre-competitive, non-profit, technological research institute, where renowned scientists from 16 Dutch organizations (academic research centers, research institutes, University Medical Centers, and biotech companies) work together. In this consortium hDMT researchers share and integrate their knowledge, expertise and research facilities in technology, biology, physics, chemistry, pharmacology and medicine to develop Organs-on-Chips using human stem cells. hDMT aims to disseminate Organ-on-Chip models and research data via open access publication and valorization.
www.hdmt.technology