Project Grant R01NS146371

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health, awarded $619,189 to Massachusetts Institute of Technology on August 19, 2026, under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders program (CFDA 93.853) to establish a bioelectronics-integrated mesoscale organ-on-a-chip platform for neuromuscular disease modeling.

MIT will develop a limb-on-a-chip platform that enables parallel monitoring of multiple independent motor units within tissue while preserving the ability to interrogate single motor units at high precision. The platform integrates soft bioelectronic interfaces that provide spatiotemporally precise muscle stimulation in vitro, with validation of safety and specificity against rigid electrodes in vivo for chronic muscle stimulation. The research addresses the hierarchical organization of the neuromuscular system, where multiple motor units coordinate tissue-wide voluntary movement through bidirectional communication between motor neurons and skeletal muscle. The recipient will validate the platform's predictive accuracy by modeling traumatic nerve injury, a common peripheral motor neuron injury with severe impacts on human health and mobility, and will develop therapeutic strategies to promote mobility recovery. Current therapies focus on nerve support while neglecting downstream muscle, promoting atrophy and slow nerve regeneration; the work aims to demonstrate that direct stimulation of non-innervated muscle can promote recovery.

Performance occurs in Massachusetts. The award period extends through June 30, 2031. This is a project grant in the assistance type classification.