In 2021 we started an exciting collaboration with Prof. Tomomi Furihata from the Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences in Japan. Prof. Furihata and his team created three conditionally immortalised human brain microvascular endothelial cells clone 18 (HBMEC/ci18), human brain vascular pericytes clone 37 (HBPC/ci37) and human astrocytes clone 35 (HASTR/ci35). The cells were initially created to build an in vitro blood-brain barrier model and recently were also shown to form spheroids.

We build the transwell and the spheroid model from these cells to examine patient CD4+ cell migration, changes in the barrier tightness after treatment with patient blood or cerebrospinal fluid and many others.