IM2PACT will identify genes or pathway candidates associated with neurodegenerative diseases and expressed in brain endothelial cells. To fulfil this aim IM2PACT will use genetic analyses of existing data (GWAS, others); transcriptomic, proteomic on patient primary cells or tissues; transcriptomic, proteomic on preclinical disease models primary cells and glycomics of BBB cells and/or cerebral vasculature of diseased brains. For more information please visit:

http://im2pact.org/contact/

IM2PACT will develop state-of-the-art in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) models by differentiating hiPSC into brain endothelial cells; it will also use mathematical modelling of receptor/carrier-mediated transcytosis across the BBB and pharmacokinetics of biopharmaceutics in the brain to create in silico BBB models reproducing/predicting disease features and BBB permeability in vivo, in both healthy and disease states. For more information, please visit:

http://im2pact.org/contact/

Complex 3D biological systems such as multicellular spheroid and organoid technologies have been implemented to improve the predictability of preclinical in-vitro models. As an example of these systems, multicellular spheroid systems are able to mimic human (patho)physiologies, they are considered a promising alternative to bridge the gap between preclinical tests and in vivo outcomes by eliminating unsuitable agents early on, and can potentially lead to significantly lower pharmaceutical development costs by shortening development time, providing meaningful and representative test results.  This asset represents a microfluidic array to generate series of spheroids with different sizes and cellular compositions which can be used to investigate active and passive transport across the blood–brain barrier. In this way, these microfluidic multisize spheroid arrays close a critical technological gap.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202004856