Organ-on-a-chip model of pulmonary arterial cell-cell interactions

Why did we fund this project?

This award aims to further develop a human pulmonary artery-on-a-chip model to replace the use of animals in some vascular remodelling studies.

Pulmonary arteries transport deoxygenated blood to alveolar capillaries to collect oxygen and proper function is essential to sustain life. Dr Beata Wojciak-Stothard has developed a microfluidic organ-on-a-chip model of the human pulmonary artery using primary endothelial and smooth muscle cells. This has attracted significant interest from the pharmaceutical industry. Beata and colleagues will now expand the model to fully meet the needs of industry by incorporating other pulmonary vascular cell types into the model. They will also optimise the device for long-term cell culture enabling studies into angiogenesis and vascular modelling that also require animals, increasing its replacement potential.

This award was made as part of the BBSRC/NC3Rs joint call for the development of next generation non-animal technologies (NATs).