VJLabs at TIBI

Engineering the Future of Precision Medicine

VJLabs at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation engineers next-generation organ-on-a-chip platforms and microphysiological systems that recapitulate human organ physiology and disease.

Founded in 2020 by Dr. Vadim Jucaud, a mentee of the late Dr. Paul I. Terasaki, the lab brings together immunology, microfluidics, tissue engineering, biomaterials, and biosensing to build in vitro models that accelerate drug discovery, reduce reliance on animal testing, and advance personalized medicine.

At the heart of VJLabs is our proprietary vascularized Tissueoid technology, which integrates perfusable microvascular networks with three-dimensional tissue constructs to create organ models with unprecedented physiological relevance. This platform serves as the foundation for five interconnected research programs spanning organ-on-a-chip engineering, transplant immunology, cancer biology, biosensing, and biomaterials.

Explore Our Research Join VJLabs

Organ-on-a-Chip & Microphysiological Systems

Vascularized liver, BBB, lymph node, and glioblastoma models for disease modeling and drug screening.

Transplant Immunology & HLA Immunobiology

HLA antibody characterization, immunogenicity prediction, and allograft rejection modeling.

Cancer Biology & Immunotherapy

Cancer vaccine screening, tumor microenvironment modeling, and personalized immunotherapy.

Biosensors & Real-Time Monitoring

Real-time, label-free monitoring of cellular responses integrated directly into our platforms.

Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering

Advanced hydrogels, oxygen-generating microparticles, and scaffolds for tissue engineering.

77

Publications

2,520+

Citations

48

Conference Abstracts

29

h-index

Principal Investigator

Vadim Jucaud, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation
Founder, VJLabs (est. 2020)

Dr. Vadim Jucaud is an immunologist and biomedical engineer whose work sits at the intersection of organ-on-a-chip technology, transplant immunology, and translational medicine. He founded VJLabs with a simple conviction: that clinically meaningful tissue models require functional vasculature, immune competence, and real-time monitoring to truly replicate human biology.

His research career began in 2010 under the mentorship of Professor Paul I. Terasaki, the pioneer of HLA tissue typing and the Humoral Theory of Transplantation. Over 15 years, Dr. Jucaud developed deep expertise in HLA immunogenetics, antibody cross-reactivity, immunogenic epitope characterization, and T and B cell immunomodulation. In 2018, he received the American Transplant Congress Young Investigator Award for his work on de novo donor-specific antibodies during an immunosuppression withdrawal trial in adult liver transplant recipients.

Today, VJLabs integrates this immunological foundation with microfluidics, biomaterials, and biosensing to build the next generation of microphysiological systems for drug discovery, disease modeling, and personalized medicine.

Research Funding: $6M+ secured to date

Active: NIH R01 ($2.3M, organ transplantation OoC), NIH R21 ($500K, xenotransplantation OoC), Mayo Clinic Partnership ($1.6M, transplant innovation)

Completed: NIH R21 ($500K, allograft rejection OoC), METAvivor ($100K, metastatic breast cancer), OpenWater ($1M, industry collaboration)

Research Programs

Five Interconnected Research Thrusts Driving Biomedical Innovation

Our research spans organ-on-a-chip engineering, immunology, biosensing, biomaterials, and cancer biology, all converging on the vascularized Tissueoid platform to create clinically relevant human tissue models.

Organ-on-a-Chip & Microphysiological Systems

Engineering the next generation of human-relevant tissue models

4 organ models 49+ day culture Scalable fabrication

The central pillar of VJLabs. We engineer vascularized, perfusable organ models including liver, blood-brain barrier, lymph node, and glioblastoma that recapitulate human physiology and disease.

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What: Vascularized Tissueoid platforms with perfusable microvascular networks, immune cell access, and integrated biosensors.

Why: Conventional models lack vasculature, immune competence, and real-time readouts, limiting their predictive value for drug discovery and regulatory applications.

How: Scalable thermoplastic fabrication, modular chip architectures, and accessible manufacturing designed for academic, pharmaceutical, and regulatory adoption.

Transplant Immunology & HLA Immunobiology

Decoding the immune response to improve transplant outcomes

15+ years of expertise E3 software (400+ features)

We study how donor-specific HLA antibodies shape transplant outcomes by mapping antibody-antigen interactions, characterizing immunogenic epitopes, and developing computational models to predict immune responses.

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What: HLA antibody characterization, epitope mapping, immunogenicity prediction, and computational donor-recipient matching using the E3 feature engineering software.

Why: Antibody-mediated rejection remains the leading cause of long-term graft loss. Predicting which mismatches trigger immune responses is critical for improving patient outcomes.

How: Our deep immunological expertise directly informs our organ-on-a-chip platforms, making them uniquely immunocompetent for modeling allograft rejection, tolerance pathways, and immunosuppressive strategies.

Cancer Biology & Immunotherapy

Personalized cancer models for better therapeutic decisions

3 cancer platforms Immunosenescence modeling

We address critical gaps in cancer research through engineered tissue models for cancer vaccine screening, drug resistance studies, and embolic agent evaluation.

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What: Lymph node-on-a-chip for cancer vaccine efficacy screening (including aging populations), glioblastoma-on-a-chip for pericyte-mediated drug resistance, and vascularized liver tumor model for embolic agent testing.

Why: Preclinical models fail to capture the complexity of human immune responses, especially in elderly patients who bear the highest cancer burden and are often overlooked in testing.

How: Our platforms recapitulate antigen presentation, T cell activation, tumor microenvironment mechanics, and age-dependent immune responses in controlled, human-relevant systems.

Biosensors & Real-Time Monitoring

Turning organ-on-a-chip platforms into continuously monitored living systems

4 sensing modalities Label-free detection

We develop and integrate label-free sensing technologies directly into our organ-on-a-chip platforms for continuous, real-time monitoring without disrupting the biological system.

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What: PC-TIR optical biosensors for antibody/toxicity monitoring, TEER electrodes for barrier integrity, electrochemical immunosensors, and contact lens biosensors for ocular biomarker detection.

Why: Traditional drug screening relies on endpoint assays that miss dynamic cellular responses, contributing to a >90% clinical trial failure rate.

How: Sensors are embedded directly into chip devices, enabling multiplexed readouts that generate richer mechanistic data for regulatory submissions and clinical decisions.

Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering

From advanced hydrogels to clinically translatable therapeutics

Clinical trial (DFU) 5+ material systems

We engineer advanced biomaterials that enhance the physiological relevance of our tissue models and enable standalone clinical applications in wound healing and regenerative medicine.

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What: Tunable hydrogel platforms (ionogels, peptide hydrogels), oxygen-generating microparticles, natural rubber latex therapeutics, and nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue repair.

Why: Biomaterials that faithfully replicate native tissue properties are essential for both accurate in vitro modeling and direct therapeutic applications.

How: We integrate biomaterials into microfluidic platforms for real-time evaluation and develop standalone dressings and scaffolds for clinical use, including a pilot trial for diabetic foot ulcers.