Biocompatible agents for preventive diagnostics in vascular disease

Cel

Perfusable vascularized microphysiological systems such as vasculature- and thrombosis-on-chip platforms are emerging as powerful tools to study cardiovascular disease and evaluate therapies. Monitoring biochemical processes such as platelet activation, thrombin generation, or endothelial signaling within these systems remains challenging. Current readout strategies rely mainly on continuous microscopy or integrated sensors, which are difficult to scale across extended vascular networks and interfere in biological experiments.
FlowAgents will bring biocompatible microagents as circulating molecular sensors for perfusable microphysiological systems to market. These cell-scale hydrogel particles incorporate programmable molecular circuits to detect biomolecules and store activation events as molecular memory. Circulating with the flow, large numbers of microagents sample biochemical activity across vascular networks and generate a population-level fluorescence readout. The technology builds on results from the ERC Starting Grant FlowMem, which uncovered mechanisms for information transport in vascular flow networks, and combines these insights with advances in DNA nanotechnology.
The ERC Proof-of-Concept project will validate the sensing platform for thrombosis-on-chip applications, representing a clear initial market opportunity. Stakeholder engagement with researchers, organ-on-chip companies, and pharmaceutical developers will define performance requirements and integration pathways. By providing a non-invasive sensing layer compatible with existing microphysiological platforms, FlowAgents aims to enable improved monitoring of organ-on-chip systems and prepare the technology for commercialization through a future spin-out. In the long term, the microagent platform could enable next-generation blood diagnostics for personalized medicine and, ultimately, in-vivo sensing approaches for cardiovascular disease monitoring and therapy guidance.