SCD is a group of genetic disorders that cause red blood cells to become misshapen and break down. From an early age, patients with sickle cell disease have a high risk of vascular disease and even stroke. Current models to test drugs used to treat SCD are not reliable and cannot accurately predict how a person’s body will respond to the medication. It is also difficult to predict which patients with the disease have the highest risk of suffering a stroke versus those who have the lowest.
The team is designing an organ-on-a-chip, consisting of a device that will mimic an artery of a pediatric sickle cell disease patient, and the associated biological readouts will provide information on the progression of vaso-occlusion, including during drug treatment.