2021/09/13 | Grants & Awards | In-vitro & Organs-on-Chip
Arunima Sengupta receives BioBarriers 2021 award
Postdoctoral researcher of the Organs-on-Chip Technologies (OOC) group, Arunima Sengupta, has been awarded one of the best contributed talks at the BioBarriers 2021, the 13th International Conference on Biological Barriers, 7 and 8 September, organized by the Helmholtz-Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Saarland University. She talked about "A bio-inspired breathing human alveoli-on-chip model to mimic inhalation" at the virtual conference.
Arunima Sengupta and an IF staining from an epithelial barrier using the ARTORG Center lung-on-chip model.
For her project, Arunima and the OOC team have combined lung-on-chip technologies with a cloud-based exposure system to model in-vivo like inhalation of airborne toxicants. For many chronic lung diseases such as emphysema or lung fibrosis, it is crucial to develop innovative models to mimic the most relevant aspects of the disease. This includes the ultra-thin alveolar barrier, breathing dynamics and inhalation of pollutants. Such models could be applied for inhalation toxicology studies, environmental risk assessment, or pre-clinical safety assessment of new drugs.
The project that is coordinated by the ARTORG spinoff AlveoliX is co-funded by Innosuisse and the European Union Eureka Eurostars program. BioBarriers is an international event held every two years. The main focus is to connect the research on cutting-edge complex in-vitro models with drug delivery technologies. The program combines international experts from both academia and industry and selected abstracts for contributed talks.
