An ‘organ-on-chip' device that replicates connections between the brain, gut and pancreas could lead to insights into how glucose affects brain function.
The GlucoBrain project, led by researchers at the University of Bath, will track how signals move between the organs to uncover why diabetes may lead to changes in memory and cognition.
While diabetes is widely known to affect the heart, kidneys and eyes, growing evidence suggests it is also linked with problems in memory, learning and brain function. Most current knowledge on this link between diabetes and dementia comes from animal studies, simple cell cultures and patient studies, which don’t fully capture all the complex interactions between organs, hormones and cells.
The aim of this study is to create a connected system on a chip that will in real time show how signals travel between organs, leading to an understanding into exactly how these diseases work at a deeper, biological level.
Organ-on-chip technology uses living human...