Human Tissue Models of Radiation-Induced Damage to Enable Medical Countermeasure Discovery

Advance the scientific understanding of illness/injury resulting from exposure to a broad range of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) pathogens and toxins, along with emerging infectious disease threats, and evaluate medical countermeasure (MCM) treatments. This will be accomplished through the advanced development of end-to-end, high throughput, human-relevant, in vitro, microphysiological system (MPS)-based platforms combined with an array of cross-cutting analytical and laboratory capabilities. MPS models may include (but are not limited to) upper airway, lower airway (alveolar), heart, kidney, liver, blood-brain-barrier (BBB), brain, vascular, skin, gastro-intestinal, mucosa, along with specialized immune system and microbiome components. The resulting suite of platforms and capabilities will be tailorable to evaluating and screening potential MCMs comprising biological products (i.e., vaccines, antibody-based treatments) and drugs that target high-priority CBRN threats and emerging infectious diseases.