The brain is connected to the gastrointestinal tract through bi-directional biochemical signaling pathways which are largely regulated by the composition of the microbiome. My goal is to develop a gut-brain axis on a chip (GBOC) to enable to study the complex interplay between the gut microbiome and brain health. The envisaged microfluidic controlled chip set-up recapitulates the two major barriers separating the brain and the gastrointestinal tract: the gut-blood barrier and the blood-brain barrier making use of human pluripotent stem cell-derived technology. The strength of the developed GBOC technology will be demonstrated with a proof-of-concept model of the impact of microbiota variation on neuronal functioning.
This project is part of the Netherlands Organ-on-a-chip Initiative - NOCI.
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