# Development of a Synovium-on-a-Chip Microphysiological System to Interrogate Pathobiology and Enhance Precision Medicine in Rheumatoid Arthritis

> **NIH NIH R21** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $235,690

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory joint disease caused by a chronic inflammation in
joints, where no effective treatment is currently available. Currently there is no effective model can accurately
dissect RA pathogenesis and consistently predict the effect of a therapeutic agent in patients. Better model
systems that can accurately recapitulate the immune responses and pathological processes of RA in the
human synovial microenvironment with immunomodulatory treatments are critically required. In this work we
aim to develop a fully patient-derived in vitro RA disease model termed “Synovium-on-a-Chip” by including full
spectrum of synovial cell types, which can serve as a precision medicine platform to (1) interrogate human RA
pathobiology and to (2) achieve "clinical trial on chips" for stratifying patients and pre-screening of novel
immunotherapy. Simulating the structure and inflammatory microenvironment of the synovium with such a
biomimetic vascularized immunocompetent microphysiological system will represent a major advance over
existing models, providing much greater biomimicry and enabling next-step studies to allow rational selection
of immunomodulatory drugs to personalize treatment of RA patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10905775
- **Project number:** 1R21AR083247-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Weiqiang Chen
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $235,690
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-03-01 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10905775

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10905775, Development of a Synovium-on-a-Chip Microphysiological System to Interrogate Pathobiology and Enhance Precision Medicine in Rheumatoid Arthritis (1R21AR083247-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10905775. Licensed CC0.

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