Dr. Lena Smirnova Awarded $15M NIH Grant to Advance Human-Relevant Neuro Models

We are proud to announce that Dr. Lena Smirnova (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) has been awarded a $15 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a next-generation platform for studying neurological diseases and evaluating drug and chemical safety.

As part of the NIH Common Fund’s Complement-ARIE program, this project seeks to advance new approach methodologies (NAMs) that more accurately replicate human biology, thereby complementing or potentially replacing animal testing.

Dr. Smirnova and her team will develop the DROID (Drug Research Organoid Intelligence Development) platform, which integrates human brain organoids, advanced electrophysiological sensing, and AI-driven analytics into a unified system. This innovative platform is designed to measure complex neural functions, such as learning and memory, addressing a key limitation of current in vitro models.

By enabling the assessment of higher-order neural responses in a human-relevant context, the platform is expected to enhance neurological disease research, including studies on Alzheimer’s disease, while improving drug discovery, efficacy testing, and neurotoxicity evaluation of chemicals.

This achievement represents a significant milestone in the advancement of microphysiological systems (MPS) and highlights the growing importance of human-based models in transforming biomedical research.