Vascularised models for neurological disease

Abstract:
Neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, affect approximately 50 million Americans each year, and with our aging population, this number will continue to grow. Despite two recently FDA-approved treatments, their success is limited, and new therapies are desperately needed.  One increasingly valuable approach to address this need lies in the use of microphysiological models of the neurovascular system both to screen for new drugs and to test modes of delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) into the brain.  In this presentation I will describe one approach in which a microvascular network can be grown in a microfluidic device that recapitulates human BBB function and morphology and can be combined with a neural compartment to capture the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Examples will be provided focusing on the accumulation of amyloid beta plaques at the vascular wall causing increases in vessel permeability and leading to neuronal damage.

Bio:
Kamm is the Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His lab works at the interface of biology and mechanics.  Current interests are in developing models of healthy and diseased organ function using microfluidic technologies, with a focus on vascularization.  Kamm has fostered biomechanics as Chair of the US National Committee on Biomechanics and of the World Council on Biomechanics.  He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering.