Glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs) drive tumor resistance by invading the brain’s vascular niches, making them especially difficult to treat and prone to relapse. To investigate these interactions, researchers developed a brain perivascular niche-on-a-chip, combining patient-derived GSCs with brain microvascular endothelial cells in a 3D microfluidic system under serum-free, gravity-driven flow. This platform sustained viable brain-like microvessels, preserved key junction markers, and enabled live imaging of GSC migration and vascular interactions, uncovering distinct responses in brain endothelium compared to non-brain vasculature.
Led by Prof. Shery Huang (CTO),this work demonstrates both the feasibility and importance of constructing functional brain-specific microvascular networks in vitro. At Replicam, this expertise directly informs our mission to advance our Brain-OPTIMATM by moving toward the integration of neurovascular units. Our goal is to create more physiologically relevant models that capture the complexity of the human neurovascular niche within brain organoids—opening new opportunities to study brain disease progression, neuro-inflammation, drug kinetics, and neurovascular disorders, while driving the development of next-generation platforms for personalized medicine and drug discovery.
