Prof. Dr. Holger Gerhardt (MDC) and Prof. Dr. Peter Vajkoczy (Charité) are cooperating in this project. They aim to establish a 3D perfusable, self-assembling vascular network-on-a-chip model that can be applied to study physiological processes and vascular diseases, such as the Moyamoya disease. The unique features of the proposed model are (1) that this microvasculature-on-a-chip model will be perfusable at specific flow rates, which is essential for the study of vascular processes, and (2) that it will be built using xeno-free protocols. Using xeno-free protocols reduces variations introduced by animal-derived products and increases the translational ability to human patients as well as contributing to the reduction of animal suffering in research.
Dr. Tomasz Nawara, Jennifer Schwarzkopf (née Paech) and Katja Meier from the Gerhardt Lab as well as Anja Nitzsche, Robert Mertens, Laura Hallek and Florian Ramge from the Vajkoczy Lab are working on the project.