PROM · Pregnancy and Reproduction Organ-on-a-chip Models

Pregnancy and Reproduction Organ-on-a-chip Models

PreTerm Birth (PTB) occurs before 37 weeks of gestation. Of 60,000 babies born prematurely every year in UK, ~1,400 die. Premature babies show increased risks of long term neurodevelopmental deficits and chronic diseases. Preterm Rupture of the foetal Membranes (PROM) is a syndrome attributable to multiple factor. Evidences linked environmental toxicant exposure and infection with a decreased fertility and an increase PTB rate. Studies of these topics suffered for limits of in vitro cell culture (e.g. absence of extracellular environment, dilution) and anatomical, physiological, endocrine differences between human and animal models. Long term goal of this project is to create Organ-on-a-Chip (OoC) models of the human endometrium and the human foetal membranes to assess the effects of environmental insults, such as infection or inflammation, to exacerbate preterm birth. An overarching goal is to utilize these OoC models to identify personalized therapy to improve and preserve fertility. Thanks to this fellowship, I thus designed and developed 2 microfluidic systems that allow to grow human, patient-derived cell of the uterus and the foetal membranes in a controlled environment to recreate their natural physiological functions. These devices have been designed with inputs from experts in the field of microfluidics, infectious diseases and reproductive biology and toxicology. In parallel I focused on early embryo development to design a new device for in vitro fertilization. The results of this research have been presented at several international conferences and have been summarized in 1 PCT patent, 3 published papers and 2 papers in preparation. In these 2 years, I have learnt analytical methods (qPCR, ELISA, Mass Spectrometry, proteomics, metabolomics) and tissue culture techniques (embryo culture and cell isolation protocols) that were not part of my engineering background. I also established new collaborations in the field of manufacturing, sustainable plastics and tissue engineering, to define new approaches for the fabrication of the new generation of organs-on-a-chip and for the integration of biocompatible scaffold in the microfluidic device.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union