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Brain on a chip to model complexity of AD (or attempt I suppose)

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 6:07 am
by Jmac
In my humble opinion, this one seems rather far out there, but who knows?

First paragraph: The complexity of Alzheimer's disease, which affects many types of cells in the brain including its blood vessels, has proven difficult to recreate in the lab. With a new $5.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, MIT neuroscientists at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory will develop a multicellular integrated "brain-on-a-chip" to model the disease's complexity with novel technologies, providing a powerful testbed for personalized disease and treatment research. https://phys.org/wire-news/331556145/mi ... -chip.html

The smart ass part of me wants to ask if they will serve dip with that chip? OK, yes, I need my first cup of caffeine. :-)

Re: Brain on a chip to model complexity of AD (or attempt I suppose)

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 2:25 pm
by Saskia
Wow! I think the enthusiastic scientist in me is more triggered than the hopeful patient is though. I would expect that getting the methodology set up right with all the variables will take much more time and money than projected but who knows - and if such a thing ever did work they could research at scale.
Hope the dip is carb free ;)

Re: Brain on a chip to model complexity of AD (or attempt I suppose)

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:21 pm
by mike
I like that they are starting with the BBB - this seems likely to key. How does E3 help the BBB protect against the high glucose levels associated with eating carbs?