'Brain-on-a-chip' research nominated for Klokhuis Science Award

A growing number of people are questioning whether we should continue to test new drugs on animals.  Scientists are therefore looking for new, animal-free methods. It sounds contrived, but Govert and his team managed to keep a tiny piece of brain alive in the laboratory! To do this, they used a chip with 120 electronic dots coated with brain cells. On top of this was a small piece of brain tissue from someone who had undergone surgery for epilepsy. This piece of brain still showed epileptic activity for six days! This opens up new questions: do we need fewer laboratory animals for medical research? And can you make such a piece of pathogenic brain tissue better and then put it back?

Every year, the Klokhuis Science Prize is awarded during InScience film festival. This prize aims to introduce Dutch scientific research to a young and wide audience. All universities, colleges and UMCs in the Netherlands can submit research. An episode of the winning research is made and broadcast by Het Klokhuis. A fun way to bring your research to the attention of children and young people.