Advancing toward a brain on a chip

Описание: The human brain. It is the most complicated part of the human body. As the control center, this organ is the source of every thought and movement. It consists of more than 89 billion neurons and sends between 10 and 100 signals every second to parts of the body.

Replicating the brain has been a goal for many neuroscientists for decades. It’s become more imperative as the population ages and neurodegenerative diseases increase. There will be 80 million people over 65 years old in 15 years, or by 2040, twice as many as in 2000. As it happens, the number of people with some sort of brain disorder will rise. It’s estimated that the number of people with dementia will triple by 2050. There is currently no cure for dementia.

Advances in stem cell understanding and supporting technologies have helped to recreate the brain in vitro (in petri dishes). But getting that environment just right is a long process. Getting to that brain-on-a-chip may never be achieved in our lifetimes. But we’re getting closer and closer, which means we’re making progress toward replicating dementia and other brain disorders to find the right compound that can aid in recovery.

How are scientists and innovators addressing the need to find therapeutics that work? We’ll talk to innovators and influencers in the biotech ecosystem, specifically those working on in vitro technologies, precision medicine and/or neurodegenerative diseases. We hope this webinar will give insights into how scientists are improving disease models to understand the curing or treating of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, ALS and other degenerative brain disorders. We’ll also explore how pharmaceutical giants are making inroads into brain therapeutic discoveries. How all this is getting paid for and what tech advancements have been made and are being made to expedite therapeutic discovery.

The panel was moderatord by Vator founder and CEO Bambi Francisco Roizen, and included: Jags Vazirani, former Executive Director Development and Commercial Alliances at Bristol Myers Squibb; Rosanna Zhang, Head of Corp Development at ACRO Biosystems; Mark Aurousseau, co-founder of eNuvio