ARKANSAS: DOD Awards U of A Researcher $297,831 to Study Effects of Toxic Pollutants on Airway Pathology
The Department of Defense awarded $297,831 to Kartik Balachandran, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the U of A, to study the effects of particulate matter pollution on the nasal airway and lung interface.
Balachandran will create the first in vitro benchtop system to incorporate both the upper and lower respiratory systems into a single model.
Over the two-year term of the grant, Balachandran will create and validate a novel airway-lung-on-a-chip, or AirLOC, system engineered from human cells. This will incorporate a multilayered, cell culture platform that mimics both normal and asthmatic nasal and lung epithelia – the tissue that covers all organs and body surfaces.
“We are very excited to receive this grant from the DOD,” Balachandran said. “We will study the pathological effects of particulate matter in this project. In the future, we hope that this AirLOC model can be used to study other diseases and problems that affect the human upper and lower respiratory systems.”