The price for best presentation (€200) at the European Vascular Biology Organization (EVBO) summer school 2021 went to Dennis Nahon (NOCI PhD-student from Leiden University Medical Center) for the presentation of his work on ‘A Modular 3D NVU-on-a-chip model for studying vascular dementia’. He showed the development of a novel 3D neurovascular unit on chip model, which makes use of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) derived vascular and neuronal cells. In this model, hiPSC-derived cell types were combined in a hydrogel of choice and injected into a 3D microfluidic chip. These cells self-organized into a perfusable micro-vascular network over the course of a couple days. The resulting vascular network was quantified, the direct cell-cell interactions were assessed and cell specific functionality was investigated. Future work using patient derived hiPSCs will enable to model the vascular aspects of neurodegenerative diseases.
