Each week, the National Science Foundation highlights “4 Awesome Discoveries You Probably Didn’t Hear About” via a kid-friendly YouTube series that highlights NSF-supported research.

Recently, one of these stories was about a synthetic model of an eye: Dan Huh, associate professor in the department of bioengineering in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, and graduate student Jeongyun Seo were recognized in the series for their new blinking eye-on-a-chip (Almanac October 8, 2019). Containing human cells and mechanical parts designed to mimic natural biological functions, including a motorized eyelid, the device was developed as platform for modeling dry eye disease and testing drugs to treat it.