6. Project

Retina-on-Chip with Local Oxygen Sensing

We will use cell biology and microfluidic technology to engineer a ‘retina-on-chip’ containing pigmented epithelium and blood vessels in a physiological and well-controlled configuration. We will work with TU Graz to incorporate oxygen sensing technology to measure local oxygen concentration. We will use the retina-on-chip model to understand the relation between hypoxia and retinal barrier dysfunction in diseases like age-related macular degeneration. Finally, we will work Boehringer Ingelheim to perform side-by-side comparisons between the retina-on-chip and conventional in vitro models of the blood-retinal barrier in modeling aspects of macular degeneration.
Supervisor: Andries van der Meer (UT); Co-supervisor: Torsten Mayr (TUG)
Enrolment in Doctoral degree(s): UT