Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of design and architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, developed a plastic chip which she claims can soon change the way scientists develop and test life-saving medicines.

Called Organs-On-Chips, the device is a microchip that is embedded within hollow microfluidic tubes that are linked with human cells, through which air, nutrients, blood and infections-causing bacteria could be pumped.

Makers of the chip stated that these chips are manufactured the same way as companies like Intel develop the brains of their computers. The only difference is that instead of moving electrons through silicon, these chips push little quantities of chemical past cells from lungs, intestines, livers, kidneys and hearts.

Its network of incredibly small tubes gives the technology its name of microfluids, and lets the chips to copy the structure and function of complete organs, making them an excellent test-bed for pharmaceuticals. The major goal of it is to lessen dependence on animal test subjects and decrease time and cost for developing drugs.

In previous year, researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering started a company called Emulate, which is now working with companies like Johnson & Johnson on just this idea: pre-clinical trial testing.

The company is presently working on incorporating Emulate’s chips into its research and development programs.

Every year, London’s Design Museum names one project as the year’s best. Last year’s winners included Zaha Hadid’s ethically-questionable Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre in Azerbaijan, a lightbulb, and a government website.

Donald Ingber, a bioengineer and founding director of the Wyss Institute, said, “Most people say form follows function, but it’s exactly the opposite in biology. Actually, that’s not fair. It’s a dynamic relationship”.