The Humane Research Trust is funding a groundbreaking project at Northumbria University that aims to transform how scientists study the human eye.
The research will develop a new organ-on-a-chip system that mimics the retina’s dynamic environment.
By replacing animal models with advanced materials that can mimic the movement and behaviour of human tissue, the team hopes to improve our understanding of age-related eye diseases and accelerate the development of new 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, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that is essential for vision. As these cells become damaged, the retina can no longer function properly, leading to gradual vision loss.
Current treatments can slow progression but cannot restore vision that's already been lost. 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.
However, 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.
In recent years, scientists have developed promising alternatives, including organ-on-a-chip technology. These miniature devices allow the human retinal cells to grow inside tiny channels through which chemicals and biofluids can 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.
Dr Yifan Li explains:
“Human tissues are not passive, but constantly changing shapes due to their mechanical properties.
“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 materials that can bend and stretch just like real eye tissue. These materials, such as elastomers and hydrogels, 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.
