Project description
3D muscle model with vasculature and innervation
The regenerative potential and architecture of skeletal muscle make it a prime candidate for advancing the 3D tissue engineering field. The EU-funded MyoChip project aims to build a 3D human skeletal muscle-on-a-chip. The engineered muscle structure will follow in vivo architecture and function, reproducing shape, contractility, and microenvironment, with irrigation by a vascular network and innervation by human motor neurons. The technology's applicability includes research on muscle development and ageing, drug testing and screening, and prosthetics and biorobotics. The project involves an interdisciplinary team of cell biologists, material engineers, and experts in microfluidics and mathematical modelling. It will lay a foundation for the next generation of complex organ-on-a-chip systems.
Objective
The aim of the MyoChip project is to build a 3D human skeletal muscle irrigated by vasculature and innervated by neurons. The reconstituted 3D muscle will mirror the architecture and function found in vivo, namely in shape, contractility and microenvironment, while irrigation by a vascular network and innervation by human motor neurons will bring additional physiologic pertinence to it. This organ-on-a-chip technology will have numerous applications including but not limited to research on muscle building and aging, drug testing and screening, as well as prosthetics and biorobotics. The feasibility of the project relies on the interdisciplinary approach which joins a team of cell biologists, material engineers, experts in microfluidics and mathematical modellers. The architecture of skeletal muscle and its regenerative capabilities make muscle a prime candidate to push the 3D tissue engineering field. As such the project will lay the technical, material and methodological foundations to tackle the next generation of complex organ-on-a-chip systems that the MyoChip consortium can exploit for the generation of highly complex 3D in vitro systems of many organs.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
1649 028 Lisboa
Portugal