# A High-Throughput Open-Well System for Engineering Neurovascular Units

> **NIH NIH R21** · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2021 · $374,377

## Abstract

Project Summary
Advances in engineering have provided unprecedented opportunities to control how cells are organized
and interact in culture. Miniaturized fluidic systems containing a variety of cells in proper organization
have been used to establish models of the essential units of a variety of human organs, including liver,
lung, kidney, bone, etc. In the nervous system, these types of systems have been used to model the
blood brain barrier, the neurovascular unit, and brain parenchyma. These systems hold great promise
for advancing the understanding of fundamental human biology, for developing cures for disease, and
for personalizing therapy for nervous system disorders. Additionally, they have the potential to
decrease usage of rodents and other non-human animals in biological and medical research. One
important technical challenge is that these systems can be complicated to operate, have limited
reproducibility and robustness, and limited throughput. The proposed research aims to develop a
system that results in an easy-to-use system, which enhances robustness and reproducibility, while
maintaining high throughput and maintaining the important features—like a blood supply—that are
important for the biological and medical utility of these biological models. We propose an open-well
structure that allows easy access to cells and removes failure-prone tubing connections. We then
propose to use this system to perform studies of the coupling between neurons and the brain blood
vessels that they couple with. This coupling is important for proper functioning of the brain, and
improper coupling has been implicated in neurodegenerative disease. By creating a simple-to-use
system, we can begin to study this coupling much more easily, robustly, and reproducibly.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10303333
- **Project number:** 1R21NS120088-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** Joel Voldman
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $374,377
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-08-01 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10303333

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10303333, A High-Throughput Open-Well System for Engineering Neurovascular Units (1R21NS120088-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10303333. Licensed CC0.

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