Abstract

3D Microphysiological Models of Neurological Function and Disease and Their Application to Drug Screening

Roger Kamm, Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

The capability to produce in vitro models of normal physiological function and disease is rapidly expanding, and it is now becoming clear that these microphysiological systems (MPS) will soon find their place in the multi-step process of identifying and vali-dating new drugs, and testing for their potentially toxic side-effects.  In order to gain acceptance by the pharma and biotech industries, however, these systems will need to be further developed, validated, and methods developed to fabricate them at high throughput and consistency.  In this presentation, we focus on systems being developed to model neurological function, disease, and the process of transport of drugs across the tight blood-brain barrier (BBB) to treat neurological disorders and cancer. These MPS are each derived entirely from human cells, produced in microfluidic platforms of different design, and include models of the BBB, Alzheimer’s Disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).