AtheroDyn: A Human-Relevant Atherosclerosis-on-Chip System for Modelling Sex, Hormone, and Pharmacokinetic Dynamics

The AtheroDyn project brings together Dutch universities, academic medical centers, and innovative SMEs to develop a groundbreaking, animal-free "blood vessel-on-a-chip" platform. By combining the scientific expertise of the University of Twente, Erasmus MC, and UMC Utrecht with the biotechnology companies Citeq, CureLogic, and Krempe, together with the Dutch Heart Foundation, this new public-private partnership bridges the gap between academia and industry to accelerate the delivery of personalized medicines to patients.

Cardiovascular disease is the world's leading cause of death, claiming nearly 18 million lives every year—accounting for approximately 32% of all global deaths. Although men and women experience cardiovascular disease differently due to biological differences, current drug development rarely takes these differences into account. At the same time, traditional animal models often fail to predict human responses, limiting the translation of research findings into effective clinical treatments. Innovative, human-relevant approaches are therefore urgently needed to address these critical gaps in healthcare.

To tackle this challenge, AtheroDyn recreates human blood vessels on an advanced microfluidic chip platform. A unique feature of this technology is its ability to simulate realistic male and female hormone levels, including natural hormonal fluctuations such as the menstrual cycle and menopause. This enables researchers to investigate precisely how sex and age influence the development of atherosclerosis. As a result, new therapies can be tested without the use of animals, under conditions that more accurately reflect human biology, leading to safer, more effective, and more targeted drug development.

The project will deliver a standardized, scalable testing platform equipped with automated fluid control and robust ISO-compliant protocols. It will also generate validated datasets benchmarked against real patient data from the AtheroExpress biobank. Together, these outcomes will result in a market-ready technology that can be readily integrated into European drug discovery and development pipelines, paving the way for more effective personalized cardiovascular treatments and improving the lives of millions of patients worldwide.