VasCom: Molecular Communication in the Human Vascular System

Medical science is moving towards treatments that are more personal, precise, and less invasive. A key step in this direction is targeted drug delivery. Instead of flooding the entire body with a drug, as in traditional therapies, targeted delivery aims to transport medicine directly to the diseased area, for example to a tumor, while sparing healthy tissue. This approach could make treatments more effective and reduce harmful side effects. To achieve this vision, researchers are exploring tiny carriers so-called nanocarriers that travel through the bloodstream to deliver drugs exactly where they are needed. Two especially promising candidates are synthetic nanoparticles and natural extracellular vesicles produced by red blood cells. However, despite enormous scientific effort, we still lack a clear understanding of how such nanocarriers actually move and behave inside the complex environment of human blood vessels. As a result, the efficiency of targeted drug delivery remains very low, with only a small fraction of carriers reaching their intended destination. This project addresses this challenge by developing advanced laboratory models that mimic human blood vessels far more realistically than before. Using micro-fabricated vessels on a chip, we will reproduce key features of real vascular systems: different diameters of arteries, veins, and capillaries, branching and merging structures, pulsating flow caused by the beating heart, and even the flexibility of vessel walls. These dynamic models will allow us to observe how molecules and nanocarriers propagate, interact with vessel walls, and eventually cross into diseased tissue. The project combines expertise from Austria, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Together, the team will study how synthetic nanoparticles behave under realistic flow conditions, and how natural red blood cell vesicles can be generated on demand and guided towards specific targets. The new knowledge will help us understand why current therapies are inefficient and how to improve them. It will also reduce the reliance on animal testing by providing alternative in-vitro models. Beyond medicine, the research contributes to a deeper scientific understanding of how information and substances move in living systems. In the long term, this could pave the way for innovative diagnostic and therapeutic methods that are safer, more sustainable, and more tailored to individual patients. By bridging engineering, biology, and medicine, this project aims to bring us closer to the future of truly personalized healthcare.