A University of Bath-led team has secured 500,000 pounds to build what it describes as a first-of-its-kind "organ-on-chip" device that recreates the biological connections between the brain, the gut and the pancreas. The GlucoBrain project will use living human cells on the chip to watch signals pass between these organs, with the goal of working out why diabetes so often coincides with changes in memory and thinking.
The link itself is not in doubt. Diabetes is well known for damaging the heart, kidneys and eyes, and a growing body of evidence connects it to difficulties with memory, learning and broader brain function. What has been missing is the mechanism. As project lead Dr Despina Moschou puts it, the gut, pancreas and brain are in constant conversation through a network of signals that regulate hunger and blood sugar, but researchers still do not fully understand how those signals interact at the cellular level, or why glucose levels track with cognitive decline.
That gap matters because it limits what can be done therapeutically. Without knowing which signalling steps go wrong, treatments for diabetes-related cognitive change are largely guesswork. A chip that lets scientists observe the three organs communicating in real time, using human cells rather than animal models, offers a way to test that chain of events directly. The Bath team, which specialises in Lab-on-Chip technology, is working with collaborators at the University of Oxford and Johns Hopkins University.
Both diabetes and Alzheimer's disease weigh heavily on ageing populations, and many people live with both. The researchers hope the platform could eventually point toward new treatments for either condition, or for the overlap between them. For now this is early-stage tool-building rather than a therapy, and the device has yet to be developed.