LOCATION/TIME
EBB CHOA Room / Wednesday, August 28th, 2019 from 1:15 - 2:15 PM
*lunch provided*
TITLE
Microengineered human blood-brain barrier model for studying CNS delivery systems
ABSTRACT
The central nervous system (CNS) has a specialized vascular barrier, the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which possesses a highly selective barrier function that restricts the permeability of drugs, leading to a high failure rate in the development of CNS therapeutics. However, it remains difficult with existing in vivo models to conduct mechanistic studies of the barrier function and interactions with drugs at molecular and cellular levels. This challenge highlights the importance of the development of in vitro models that mimic the physiological structure and function of the BBB. Despite various efforts, physiologically relevant in vitro human BBB models capable of highly precise, quantitative analysis of drug delivery remain to be developed. In this study, we present a human BBB-on-a-chip designed to create a 3D astrocytic network with reduced reactive gliosis and polarized aquaporin-4, critical features of the BBB that has yet to be demonstrated. Our model will provide a reliable tool for studying the penetrance of CNS drugs across the BBB.
BIO
Song Ih Ahn is a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. YongTae Kim's lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. Before she started her Ph.D. in 2015, she received her M.S. and B.S. in mechanical engineering from KAIST. Her research focuses on developing microengineered physiological models for disease modeling and drug distribution study.
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