Pump-prime Projects
Our 3 rounds of pump priming funding helped to deliver Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies Network (OOACT) aims which included: stimulating new collaborations between network members, and integrating research activity across traditional research disciplines. In our first award round announced in October 2018, we funded five sabbatical pump-prime projects with a total spend of £85,227. For more news on this funding round, please read: "Funding stimulates new collaborations in organ-on-a-chip technologies" In our second award round announced in April 2019, we funded a further three sabbatical pump-prime projects with a total spend of £47,033 and in our final award round announced in September 2020, we funded ten pump-prime projects with a total spend of £209,202.
Details of all the OOACT Network pump priming projects:
Development of a multi-scale microfluidic tissue platform for modelling complex vascular and immune functions
| Principal investigator: | John Connelly, Queen Mary University of London |
| Co-investigators: | Frederik Claeyssens, University of Sheffield Daniel Aeschlimann, Cardiff University Zulfiqur Ali, Teesside University Pelin Candarlioglu, GlaxoSmithKline Adrian Biddle, Queen Mary University of London Lorenzo Veschini, Kings College London |
| Researchers: | Liisa Blowes, Queen Mary University of London |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-05-2021 / End: 31-10-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £8,000 |
Streptococcus pneumoniae infection on a human lung-on-chip model
| Principal investigator: | Caroline Weight, University College London |
| Co-investigators: | Robert Heyderman, University College London Hywel Morgan, University of Southampton Emily Swindle, University of Southampton |
| Researchers: | Caroline Weight, University College London Nikita Karra, University of Southampton |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-05-2021 / End: 31-10-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £21,638 |
Design of a microfluidics device for studies of breast cancer metastasis and tissue-resident macrophages induced niche priming
| Principal investigator: | Justin Stebbing, Imperial College London |
| Co-investigators: | Volker Lauschke, Karolinska Institute, Sweden |
| Researchers: | Nina Moderau, Imperial College London |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-04-2021 / End: 31-07-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £24,000 |
Feeling the force: Enhancing OOAC capability for biomechanical assessment and application
| Principal investigator: | Pierre Bagnaninchi, University of Edinburgh |
| Co-investigators: | Jerome Charmet, University of Warwick Alicia El Haj, University of Birmingham |
| Researchers: | Andras Kufcsak, University of Edinburgh Luo Luo, University of Birmingham |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-03-2021 / End: 31-07-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £23,471 |
Emulate-Bladder: A new dynamic in vitro human bladder model
| Principal investigator: | Mark Chambers, University of Surrey |
| Co-investigators: | Hardev Pandha, University of Surrey Clare Thompson, Queen Mary University of London Martin Knight, Queen Mary University of London |
| Researchers: | Guy Simpson, University of Surrey |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 26-04-2021 / End: 25-07-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £23,952 |
3D Printed Vascularised Polymer Scaffolds: Towards a Womb-on-a-Chip Model to Study Human Embryo Implantation
| Principal investigator: | Ahmed Eissa, University of Warwick |
| Co-investigators: | Jan Brosens, University of Warwick |
| Researchers: | Ahmed Eissa, University of Warwick Emma Salisbury, University of Warwick |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 25-01-2021 / End: 24-07-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £23,730 |
TEER imaging platform for OOAC: spatially resolved TEER measurement at the cellular level
| Principal investigator: | Jerome Charmet, University of Warwick |
| Co-investigators: | Jiabin Jia, University of Edinburgh Pierre Bagnaninchi, University of Edinburgh Paul Holloway, University of Oxford |
| Researchers: | Rui Rodrigues, University of Warwick Graham Anderson, University of Edinburgh |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-03-2021 / End: 30-06-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £23,822 |
Adenomyosis-on-a-chip: a microfluidic 3D model of the endometrial-myometrial junction (EMJ)
| Principal investigator: | Mairi Sandison, University of Strathclyde |
| Co-investigators: | Michele Zagnoni, University of Strathclyde Dharani Hapangama, University of Liverpool |
| Researchers: | Caroline Busch, University of Glasgow |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 06-04-2021 / End: 20-06-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £22,610 |
Feasibility study to assess the use of organ-on-a-chip technology for optimization of radiotherapy cancer treatment
| Principal investigator: | Giuseppe Schettino, University of Surrey |
| Co-investigators: | Eirini Velliou, University of Surrey |
| Researcher co-investigators: | Miriam Barry, National Physical Laboratory |
| Researchers: | Priyanka Gupta, University of Surrey Chiara De Lucia, University of Surrey / NPL |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 06-04-2021 / End: 20-06-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £21,190 |
Engineering vascularised pancreatic islets on a chip to report on the functional connectivity of insulin-producing beta cells
| Principal investigator: | Victoria Salem, Imperial College London |
| Co-investigators: | Joseph Sherwood, Imperial College London |
| Researchers: | Kinga Suba, Imperial College London |
| Award round: | 3 |
| Dates: | Start: 15-03-2021 / End: 14-06-2021 |
| Contract amount: | £16,789 |
Incorporating the circadian clock into Organ-on-a-Chip (OOAC) devices
| Principal investigator: | David Lee, Queen Mary University of London |
| Co-investigators: | John O'Neill, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge |
| Researcher co-investigators: | Tom Nightingale, William Harvey Research Institute, London |
| Researchers: | Hannah Heywood, Queen Mary University of London |
| Award round: | 2 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-04-2020 / End: 25-10-2020 |
| Contract amount: | £19,669 |
Isogenic human neurovascular unit on chip: towards a disease on chip model of stroke
| Principal investigator: | Alistair Buchan, University of Oxford |
| Co-investigators: | Chris Hughes, University of California Irvine Abraham Lee, University of California Irvine |
| Researcher co-investigators: | Paul Holloway, University of Oxford |
| Award round: | 2 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-10-2019 / End: 01-04-2020 |
| Contract amount: | £18,404 |
Organoid modelling of the tumour immune microenvironment
| Principal investigator: | Daniela Loessner, Queen Mary University of London |
| Co-investigators: | Aideen Ryan, National University of Ireland, Galway Nick Leslie, Heriot-Watt University |
| Researcher co-investigators: | Niamh Leonard, National University of Ireland, Galway |
| Award round: | 2 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-11-2019 / End: 31-03-2020 |
| Contract amount: | £8,960 |
Microfluidic model of human pulmonary artery: vascular cell positioning under flow
| Principal investigator: | Beata Wojciak-Stothard, Imperial College London |
| Co-investigators: | Virginia Pensabene, University of Leeds |
| Researchers: | Alexander Ainscough, Imperial College London Vanessa Mancini, University of Leeds |
| Award round: | 1 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-08-2019 / End: 30-11-2019 |
| Contract amount: | £14,400 |
Next-Generation Material for high-volume production of Sustainable, Biocompatible Organ-On-Chip devices
| Principal investigator: | Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Heriot-Watt University |
| Co-investigators: | Virginia Pensabene, University of Leeds Eugenio Martinelli, University of Rome Tor Vergata Holger Becker, Microfluidic ChipShop GmbH Maciej Skolimowski, Micronit Microtechnologies BV |
| Researcher co-investigators: | Sandro Meucci, Micronit Microtechnologies BV Francesco Colucci, University of Leeds |
| Researchers: | Alfredo Ongaro, Heriot-Watt University |
| Award round: | 1 |
| Dates: | Start: 01-04-2019 / End: 31-10-2019 |
| Contract amount: | £10,627 |
Development of a microvascularised cerebral organoid-on-a-chip
| Principal investigator: | Julien Gautrot, Queen Mary University of London |
| Co-investigators: | Madeline Lancaster, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology |
| Researchers: | Stefania Di Cio, Queen Mary University of London |
| Award round: | 1 |
| Dates: | Start: 04-02-2019 / End: 03-08-2019 |
| Contract amount: | £22,886 |
Development of an immune-responsive 3D skin model
| Principal investigator: | John Connelly, Queen Mary University of London |
| Co-investigators: | John Greenman, University of Hull Matthew Hardman, University of Hull |
| Researchers: | Ana Laly Aguedo, Queen Mary University of London |
| Award round: | 1 |
| Dates: | Start: 04-01-2019 / End: 31-07-2019 |
| Contract amount: | £17,008 |
Transcriptional development of human primary osteocytes in a 3D bone organ
| Principal investigator: | Phillipa Hulley, University of Oxford |
| Co-investigators: | Liam Grover, University of Birmingham Adam Cribbs, University of Oxford |
| Researcher co-investigators: | Anastasios Chanalaris, University of Oxford |
| Award round: | 1 |
| Dates: | Start: 14-01-2019 / End: 30-06-2019 |
| Contract amount: | £20,306 |