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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory engineer Monica Moya analyzes the cells and support material making up the replicated blood-brain barrier on a chip-based device. To create the device, researchers fabricated hollow “fibers” mimicking arteries and sandwiched them between two silicone-based organic polymer layers. The team seeded the fibers with endothelial cells from the human brain on the inside of the channels, introduced the astrocytes on the outside, and modeled the brain’s flow of blood by continuously pumping a fluid through the device’s chambers.