Biological Barriers Research Group

Biological barriers protect our body from harmful effects. They also block the penetration of therapeutics and make pharmacological treatments of different organs, like the brain difficult. In addition, they may be damaged in illnesses, like diabetes, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases, or acute pancreatitis. Our goal is 1. to develop novel devices and models for the investigation of biological barriers 2. to enhance drug penetration across biological barriers by new techniques 3. to protect barriers in disease conditions We use human cell based culture models of the blood-brain, the intestinal, the lung, the bronchial, the nasal and the cornea barriers. In addition to static culture models we also use organ-on-chip devices with flow to mimic the physiological conditions. Currently we test peptides to open or cross barriers and nanoparticles targeted for the transporters of the blood-brain barrier. Our group is expert in cellular toxicity assays, barrier function and drug penetration measurements, preparation, characterization and testing vesicular nanoparticles.