Sleep is an essential part of everyday life, and its disturbances affect people emotional and cognitive well-being. Sleep disturbances are early warning signs of Parkinson’s Disease, predicted to rise from 40 to 135 Mln worldwide in 30 years
Twin on a chip brains for monitoring individual sleep habits
NAP makes real the study of individual sleep pathophysiology through a new science-to-technology paradigm merging in vitro modelling, allometric scaling, signal processing and micromanufacturing

NAP Proof of Principle


The cyborganoids, the first biohybrid enabling technology for long-term monitoring of sleep and wake states in vitro, identifying individual sleep habits, studying sleep deprivation and detecting its anomalies predicting Parkinson's Disease. 

NAP envisioned technology


Innovative twin-on-a-chip for predictive medicine, exploiting in a totally new and unexplored way in vitro biotechnologies for routinely monitoring our sleep health and being promptly warned about alterations due to sleep deprivation or sleep-related disorders. 

NAP impacts

NAP is expected to make significant transformative effects in science, society, economy and regulation 

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

The cyborganoid represent the next generation of in vitro models of a person’ brain; beyond the project aims, the cyborganoid can be customized to other organ models that can benefit from electrical stimulation or recording, e.g., gut and heart models, providing unexplored read-out. 

We will deliver a novel tool enabling the extrapolation of biological parameters from in vitro to the human context.

SOCIETY

NAP outcomes will represent a unique tool for predictive personalised medicine, helping predate PD ( and other neuropathies) diagnosis in females and males, a global challenge in our getting older society. 

The early diagnosis will help people to plan ahead for their care, financial and legal matters.





ECONOMY

NAP’s long-term exploitation of the cyborganoid will support health operators to provide timely and thus more effective treatments and advice regarding care, that will scale back healthcare costs.

The cyborganoids will give fresh impetus to pharmaceutical research and enterprise, boosting growth, competitiveness and attractiveness of EU as a leading voice for tackling prompt PD diagnosis and sleep deprivation.

POLICY MAKERS

The emphasis on the consequences on sleep deprivation will promote the implementation of new policies to properly regulate working hours and schedules, improve access to ambulatory in-home diagnostic testing and promote national and local public health campaigns focusing on the importance of sleep, also as part of a national sleep strategy. 

Because sleep health is unevenly distributed across the population, NAP is a necessary step toward health equity.