{"id":102170,"date":"2020-02-10T17:42:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T01:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/the-human-brains-meticulous-interface-with-the-bloodstream-now-on-a-precision-chip"},"modified":"2020-02-10T17:42:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T01:42:39","slug":"the-human-brains-meticulous-interface-with-the-bloodstream-now-on-a-precision-chip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/the-human-brains-meticulous-interface-with-the-bloodstream-now-on-a-precision-chip","title":{"rendered":"The human brain\u2019s meticulous interface with the bloodstream now on a precision chip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/the-human-brains-meticulous-interface-with-the-bloodstream-now-on-a-precision-chip3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A scrupulous gatekeeper stands between the brain and its circulatory system to let in the good and keep out the bad, but this porter, called the blood-brain barrier, also blocks trial drugs to treat diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s or cancer from getting into the brain.<\/p>\n<p>Now a team led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has engineered a way of studying the barrier more closely with the intent of helping drug developers do the same. In a new study, the researchers cultured the human <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/blood-brain+barrier\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">blood-brain barrier<\/a> on a <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/chip\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">chip<\/a>, recreating its physiology more realistically than predecessor chips.<\/p>\n<p>The new chip devised a healthy environment for the barrier\u2019s central component, a brain cell called the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/astrocyte\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">astrocyte<\/a>, which is not a neuron, but which acts as neurons\u2019 intercessors with the circulatory system. Astrocytes interface in <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/human+brains\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">human brains<\/a> with cells in the vasculature called endothelial cells to collaborate with them as the blood-brain barrier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A scrupulous gatekeeper stands between the brain and its circulatory system to let in the good and keep out the bad, but this porter, called the blood-brain barrier, also blocks trial drugs to treat diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s or cancer from getting into the brain. Now a team led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}