Imec is the world’s leading independent nanoelectronics R&D Hub.
Our Life sciences and Health Solutions department investigates applications in genomics, drug discovery, cell therapy, medtech and neuroscience.
PoC project information
To build adequate digital twins of humans and human pathophysiology, we need to understand how human biology operates at the cellular and tissue levels, and we need human-relevant data to feed the digital twins.
Today, we often rely on two types of models: animal models or in vitro models. While animal models pose ethical dilemmas, are costly, and time-intensive, they frequently fail to accurately replicate human biological processes. On the other hand, in vitro models are faster, more cost-effective, and ethically suitable, yet they also do not always perfectly mimic in-body activities.
The ideal in vitro test of the future should closely replicate cell and tissue activity as it occurs within the human body.
Organ-on-a-chip technology or Microphysiological Systems (MPS) accomplish this by using silicon devices that support the growth of cells and tissues and reading out valuable information from sensors integrated around these. However, at the moment, MPS systems suffer from reproducibility issues as well as scarcity in analysis options.
We are running 2 neuroscience projects set in the domain of in vitro models using microphysiological systems (MPS) to investigate various important challenges in brain health applications:
- Challenge 1: development of effective therapies for neurodegenerative diseases that permeate the Blood-Brain Barrier
- Challenge 2: optimizing the spike sorting analysis pipeline to accurately detect and characterize neuronal activity
The work in these PoC projects centers around the development of a foundational AI stack to enable Microphysiological Systems.
Challenges
- IMEC challenge 2: Brain-on-Chip NeuroCAASChallenge 2: Brain-on-Chip NeuroCAAS In the Brain-on-Chip project, neuronal circuits are reconstructed in vitro from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC’s) to…
- IMEC challenge 1: Triple-BChallenge 1: Triple-B The core objective of the TripleB project is to develop a superior, human-relevant in vitro organ-on-chip model of the…