Because thromboembolism (the process by which a blood clot breaks away from the area where it formed and travels and attaches to another blood vessel) is based on factors that are unique to each person, it is difficult to predict an individual’s risk of ischemic stroke. In a study published in the Cell Press journal cell biomaterial On July 23, researchers developed a tool to get around this problem. It is an artery-on-a-chip platform called a “physical twin” that can reproduce a patient’s unique vascular structure and blood flow dynamics.
The idea arose from a critical clinical gap. We know that even “low-risk” patients can suffer a severe or fatal stroke. We wanted to find a better way to predict this risk. ”
Reining Arnold Ju, Author, University of Sydney, Australia
Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked, usually by a blood clot or fatty plaque. When vital blood and oxygen are cut off, brain cells die within minutes. Therefore, it is important to find new ways to predict who is most at risk so that better interventions can be developed.
“Our study accurately reproduces the patient-specific carotid artery geometry,” says Ju. This physical twin also uses cells that more closely mimic the dynamics of blood flow within these structures.
Researchers reconstructed carotid arteries from six patients with varying degrees of disease. They used computational fluid dynamics to calculate how blood flows through each artery and found large differences in local blood flow despite the same level of stenosis. After using a laser to cause small damage to the underlying collagen, they also observed surprisingly different clotting behavior depending on the shape of the artery.
“Our findings suggested that three-dimensional vessel geometry and local blood flow obstruction are much more important than simple stenosis,” says lead author Yunduo Charles Zhao of the Heart Institute in Newtown, Australia. His grandmother died of a stroke during his doctoral studies, which motivated him to shift his research to predictive stroke diagnosis.
“We hope that these tools will enable the study of drugs aimed at reducing the risk of stroke and ultimately allow us to provide personalized treatment based on each patient’s anatomy.”
The team is currently recruiting stroke patients for a clinical trial to assess how the technology directly benefits underserved stroke patients. They say the technique could also be used to study other cardiovascular diseases, such as peripheral artery disease, deep vein thrombosis, and aneurysms.
This research was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the New South Wales Cardiovascular Capacity Building Program, the MRFF Cardiovascular Health Mission Grant, the MRFF Early to Mid-Career Investigator Grant, and the Ramaciotti Foundation. National Heart Foundation, Global and Research Activities Directorate, and University of Sydney Drug Discovery Initiative.
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Reference magazines:
Zhao, Y.C. others. (2026). A patient-specific carotid artery-on-a-chip “physical twin” analyzes the complex flow-dependent VWF mechanical expression. cell biomaterial. DOI: 10.1016/j.celbio.2026.100541. https://www.cell.com/cell-biomaterials/fulltext/S3050-5623(26)00197-2
