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Zooming in on life

Mimicking life on a microscale

14 million: the amount of deaths every year worldwide because of thrombosis-related heart attacks or strokes. To better understand and combat thrombosis, we need to gain more knowledge.

Blood flow patterns and 3D geometry of blood vessels play a key role in the mechanism of thrombosis. If we can create a small scale in vitro model of healthy ánd affected blood vessels, we can help healthcare in improving treatment and diagnosis. An organ on a chip, so to speak.

Human brain as computer chip. Concept of CPU.

Jetting technology can be used to literally create an artifical organ on a chip. Using CT image data, a printer can produce a three-dimensional “carbon copy” of blood vessels on a microfluidic chip, which is then coated with human cells.

The result: an in vitro lab model3 of human blood vessels, ready to help healthcare move forward.

Gatekeeper of the brain
A unique feature of our bodies: the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Between the blood and the surrounding nervous tissue, it functions as the perfect gatekeeper: optimizing conditions and keeping toxins out.

In several neurodegenerative diseases, the BBB-functionality is disturbed. How? We’re not sure yet.

By mimicking the gatekeeper on a microscale, we can get a better understanding of the barrier function of the BBB. The BIOS Lab on a chip Group in Twente developed a microfluidic platform to model both biochemical and mechanical stress in the barrier: a micro-environment, containing real life brain cells.

Using the principles of nanofluidic transport, we now have a model to study the brain-gatekeeper. How do diseases work, and how can we evaluate drug passage and in that way also gain insight in the treatment of these neurodegenerative diseases.

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Dutch physicist Albert van den Berg is a professor of microand nanofluidics, lab-on-a-chip technologies and applications at Twente University. There, he heads the BIOS Research Group at the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology. In 2014 he was appointed scientific director of the MIRA institute for Biomedical Engineering.

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