The Humane Research Trust is funding a groundbreaking project at Northumbria University to transform how scientists study the human eye. This initiative will create a new organ-on-a-chip system that mimics the retina’s dynamic environment. By replacing animal models with advanced elastomer–hydrogel technology, the researchers aim to unlock new insights into age-related eye conditions and speed up the development of treatments.
Eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other retinal disorders affect millions worldwide. AMD is one of the leading causes of vision loss in older adults. It gradually destroys the cells that support the retina. This process begins when retinal pigment epithelium cells - essential for nourishing the retina - start to fail. Over time, this breakdown disrupts the delicate balance of mechanical and biochemical signals that keep the eye healthy.
Current treatments can slow progression but cannot restore lost vision. To develop better therapies, scientists need models that replicate both healthy and diseased states of the human eye. That means mimicking not only the chemical environment but also the physical changes that occur as disease advances. Without this, researchers cannot fully understand how conditions like AMD start, or how to stop them.
For decades, eye research has relied on animal models such as mice and rabbits. Between 2014 and 2024 alone, 209,382 animals were used in basic research into sensory organs. But these models are poor substitutes for humans. Animal eyes differ in size, structure, and cellular composition, so results often do not translate into effective human treatments. They also raise serious ethical concerns, causing suffering without delivering reliable outcomes.
Advanced laboratory models have appeared as promising alternatives to animal studies. Researchers have developed organ-on-a-chip systems, where retinal tissue grows inside microfluidic devices. These devices have tiny channels and capillary structures, which allow chemicals and biofluids to flow.
However, existing organ-on-a-chip models are still limited. They often use static surfaces, which cannot replicate the natural movements of human tissue. This gap slows scientific progress and leaves patients waiting for breakthroughs.
“Human tissues are not passive, but constantly changing shapes due to their mechanical properties,” explains Dr Yifan Li. “We urgently need to find a way to significantly increase the efficiency of our simulation conditions, so they’re more like those found in the living body of a human.”
The Humane Research Trust is excited to fund Dr Li’s research at Northumbria University, which aims to overcome these challenges and create more realistic models of the human eye. During this project, his team will build a revolutionary platform that replicates the living retina more closely than ever before.
Instead of static surfaces, the system will use soft elastomers and hydrogels engineered to bend, stretch, and wrinkle, just like real eye tissue. These shape-morphing surfaces will host retinal cells in a dynamic environment, responding to mechanical and biochemical cues as they would inside the human eye. This means scientists can study how healthy cells behave and how disease begins under conditions that truly reflect human biology.
As Dr Li explains: “We envisage micro-engineered elastomer-hydrogel biomechanical stimulation mechanisms for in vitro cell culturing capable of effectively mimicking in vivo conditions of native tissues and functions of human models.”
By integrating these dynamic surfaces with organ-on-a-chip technology, the project will allow researchers to model healthy eye function, as well as disease progression in real time, without using animals. This humane, scalable system promises to accelerate discovery and bring us closer to treatments that improve eye health.
Dr Yifan Li
Principal investigator
Dr Yifan Li is an Associate Professor in Micro and Nano Systems at Northumbria University. He specialises in the advanced fabrication and engineering of biomaterials and devices for medical research. He has recently developed control mechanisms of surface shape-morphing on smart soft materials at micrometre to millimetre scale.
