Project description
Biomimetic physiological platform for drug discovery
The EU-funded BBBhybrid project focused on the design, production, characterisation and future commercialisation of the first real-scale 3D-printed model of the brain tumour microenvironment and its associated neurovasculature. This biomimetic, dynamic, 3D system with microcapillary diameter size and fluid flows similar to in vivo physiological parameters will reliably reproduce the physiological environment and accurately estimate the amount of drugs or nanomaterial-associated compounds delivered through a modular length of the system. The BBBhybrid platform could be easily adopted for the development of co-culture systems for high-throughput screening of brain drugs and testing the efficacy of different anticancer therapies.
Objective
This project is focused on the design, the production, the characterization, and the proposal for future commercialization of the first 1:1 scale 3D-printed realistic model of the brain tumor microenvironment with its associated blood neurovasculature. The proposed biomimetic dynamic 3D system, characterized by microcapillary diameter size and fluid flows similar to the in vivo physiological parameters, represents a drastic innovation with respect to other models well-established in the literature and available on the market, since it will allow to reliably reproduce the physiological environment and to accurately estimate the amount of drugs and/or of nanomaterial-associated compounds delivered through a modular length of the system. At the same time, in vitro 3D models are envisioned, allowing more physiologically-relevant information and predictive data to be obtained. All the artificial components will be fabricated through advanced lithography techniques based on two-photon polymerization (2pp), a disrupting mesoscale manufacturing approach which allows the fast fabrication of low-cost structures with nanometer resolution and great levels of reproducibility/accuracy. The proposed platform can be easily adopted in cell biology laboratories as multi-compartmental scaffold for the development of advanced co-culture systems, the primary biomedical applications of which consist in high-throughput screening of brain drugs and in testing of the efficacy of different anticancer therapies in vitro.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantHost institution
16163 Genova
Italy