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Scientists at the University of Crete, Greece, are studying human brain cells to understand amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and how to cure the disease.

They say a human brain-on-a-chip could pave the way for a new era in research.

Professor Achilleas Gravanis leads the EU-funded ALS-on-a-chip project. His team, alongside Dr Dimitris Tzeranis, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow working with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, US, is developing a 3D chip laden with motor neurons and myocytes – cells essential for movement – and star-shaped brain cells known as astrocytes.

Gravanis said: “These cells are playing a pivotal role in ALS.

“We are comparing the cells of ALS patients and healthy people to identify differences, combining state-of-the-art systems pharmacology and imaging techniques.”

The chip is constructed using 3D scaffolds made of collagen.

Using it, the scientists can run studies to define the cause of the disease and test new drugs to see if they improve how the human brain cells work.

Gravanis says the chip could be an intermediate step between initial safety and efficacy tests in animals and expensive trials in human volunteers.

He added: “This would enormously reduce the number of animals used.

“And it allows us to test many more compounds from a chemical library. If the ALS chips with human neuronal cells confirm that a compound works, we will have a better chance of success in humans.”

Gravanis concluded: “It is very disappointing that none of the ALS drugs tested on animals worked well in humans, but you cannot simulate the human body by looking only at animal cells in a dish.”

The chip could be on the market at the end of 2017.