Micro-engineered cell culture models, so-called Organs-on-a-Chip have emerged as a new tool to recapitulate human physiology and drug responses.

Multiple studies and research programs have shown that Organs-on-a-Chip can recapitulate the multicellular architectures, vascular-parenchymal tissue interfaces, chemical gradients, mechanical cues, and vascular perfusion of the body can produce levels of tissue and organ functionality, as well as mimicry of human disease states, which are not possible with conventional 2D or 3D culture systems.

Here we exploit the micro-engineering technology in a novel system-level approach to disintegrate the functions and coupling of neurovascular unit in to its individual cellular compartments while keeping the paracellular metabolic coupling.

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