Microfluidic technology to help understand physical damage to brain cells

了解人类大脑和神经系统的组织、结构和机制仍然是科学面临的最大挑战之一。该项目旨在开发一种新的细胞培养平台，以形成明确的脑细胞分子网络，并监测整个网络的变化，以响应网络中的小局部损伤。这个创新的平台将被用来帮助了解细胞内的变化，以响应对脑细胞网络的物理损害。这是发达国家导致死亡和残疾的主要原因之一，并被确定为包括阿尔茨海默氏症、帕金森氏症和运动神经元病在内的一系列神经退行性疾病的风险因素。

Understanding the organisation, structure and mechanisms of the human brain and nervous system remains one of the biggest challenges of science. This project aims to develop a new cell culture platform to form defined molecular networks of brain cells and to monitor changes throughout the network in response to a small localised injury within the network. This innovative platform will be used to help understand changes within cells in response to physical damage to networks of brain cells. This is one of the major causes of death and disability in developed nations, and is identified as a risk factor for a range of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neuron disease.