Cheick Ahmed Tidiane Sissoko

Cheick Sissoko is a biomedical engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cincinnati building microphysiological systems to study the blood-brain barrier and neurovascular unit. His current work centers on a microfluidic neurovascular unit/BBB-on-a-chip platform that pairs iPSC-derived brain cells with vascular co-cultures in a custom hydrogel environment, paired with imaging and analysis pipelines he built to quantify network morphology and calcium activity. The project, aimed at modeling how Alzheimer's disease disrupts brain vasculature, has been supported by an IRiS Graduate Research Fellowship and an IFER Graduate Fellowship.
Before starting his Ph.D., Cheick spent time in UC's Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery department studying the airway microbiome in laryngotracheal stenosis and the biomechanics of tracheal puncture, and worked at the New York State Psychiatric Institute studying links between COVID-19 and changes in hippocampal neurogenesis, work that got picked up by the LA Times. He also spent a few months at Neuralink as a biocompatibility intern, working on ISO 10993 neurotoxicity assays. Earlier still, he did MRI/MRS work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy trials at the University of Florida and an internship at Hôpital Principal de Dakar.
He holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Florida and an M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Mount Sinai, where his thesis used LC-MS/MS to profile tau hyperphosphorylation in human brain tissue.

Master in Science: Icahn school of medicine at Mount Sinai New York, 2020 (Biomedical sciences )

Bachelor: University of Florida Gainesville , 2016 (Biology)

Grant: #Check #PENDING Investigators:Barrile, Riccardo; Sissoko, Cheick 01-01-2026 -12-31-2026 International Foundation for Ethical Research Microfluidic-based sensor-enabled Neurovascular unit for modeling Alzheimer's Disease impact on the brain vasculature Role:Collaborator 15000.00

Peer Reviewed Publications

Soung, Allison L; Vanderheiden, Abigail; Nordvig, Anna S; Sissoko, Cheick A; Canoll, Peter; Mariani, Madeline B; Jiang, Xiaoping; Bricker, Traci; Rosoklija, Gorazd B; Arango, Victoria; Underwood, Mark; Mann, J John; Dwork, Andrew J; Goldman, James E; Boon, Adrianus C M; Boldrini, Maura; Klein, Robyn S  (2022). COVID-19 induces CNS cytokine expression and loss of hippocampal neurogenesis. Brain : a journal of neurologyMore Information

Farrell, Kurt; Kim, SoongHo; Han, Natalia; Iida, Megan A; Gonzalez, Elias M; Otero-Garcia, Marcos; Walker, Jamie M; Richardson, Timothy E; Renton, Alan E; Andrews, Shea J; Fulton-Howard, Brian; Humphrey, Jack; Vialle, Ricardo A; Bowles, Kathryn R; de Paiva Lopes, Katia; Whitney, Kristen; Dangoor, Diana K; Walsh, Hadley; Marcora, Edoardo; Hefti, Marco M; Casella, Alicia; Sissoko, Cheick T; Kapoor, Manav; Novikova, Gloriia; Udine, Evan; Wong, Garrett; Tang, Weijing; Bhangale, Tushar; Hunkapiller, Julie; Ayalon, Gai; Graham, Robert R; Cherry, Jonathan D; Cortes, Etty P; Borukov, Valeriy Y; McKee, Ann C; Stein, Thor D; Vonsattel, Jean-Paul; Teich, Andy F; Gearing, Marla; Glass, Jonathan; Troncoso, Juan C; Frosch, Matthew P; Hyman, Bradley T; Dickson, Dennis W; Murray, Melissa E; Attems, Johannes; Flanagan, Margaret E; Mao, Qinwen; Mesulam, M-Marsel; Weintraub, Sandra; Woltjer, Randy L; Pham, Thao; Kofler, Julia; Schneider, Julie A; Yu, Lei; Purohit, Dushyant P; Haroutunian, Vahram; Hof, Patrick R; Gandy, Sam; Sano, Mary; Beach, Thomas G; Poon, Wayne; Kawas, Claudia H; Corrada, María M; Rissman, Robert A; Metcalf, Jeff; Shuldberg, Sara; Salehi, Bahar; Nelson, Peter T; Trojanowski, John Q; Lee, Edward B; Wolk, David A; McMillan, Corey T; Keene, C Dirk; Latimer, Caitlin S; Montine, Thomas J; Kovacs, Gabor G; Lutz, Mirjam I; Fischer, Peter; Perrin, Richard J; Cairns, Nigel J; Franklin, Erin E; Cohen, Herbert T; Raj, Towfique; Cobos, Inma; Frost, Bess; Goate, Alison; White Iii, Charles L; Crary, John F  (2022). Genome-wide association study and functional validation implicates JADE1 in tauopathy. Acta neuropathologica, 143 (1) , 33-53More Information

Klein, Robyn; Soung, Allison; Sissoko, Cheick; Nordvig, Anna; Canoll, Peter; Mariani, Madeline; Jiang, Xiaoping; Bricker, Traci; Goldman, James; Rosoklija, Gorazd; Arango, Victoria; Underwood, Mark; Mann, J John; Boon, Adrianus; Dowrk, Andrew; Boldrini, Maura  (2021). COVID-19 induces neuroinflammation and loss of hippocampal neurogenesis. Research squareMore Information

Abedi, Kimia; Sissoko, Cheick; Pun, Sirjana; Kappagantula, Sumedha; Zucca, Beatrice; Barrile, Riccardo  (2026). Modeling glioblastoma niche-by-niche: recent advancements in bioengineering of organotypic models of glioblastoma for precision medicine. Biofabrication, 18 (3) More Information

Sissoko, Cheick; Spitz, Sarah; Zhang, Zhengyu; Abedi, Kimia; Kamm, Roger D; Barrile, Riccardo  (2026). Engineering the blood-brain barrier on chip: advances in preclinical drug penetration and disease modeling. Advanced drug delivery reviews, 234, 115881More Information

Awad, Nour; Larson, Peter J; Sissoko, Cheick A; Bond, Laurel L; Dion, Gregory R  (2025). Metagenomic whole genome shotgun analysis of the airway microbiome in laryngotracheal stenosis: a pilot study. Scientific reports, 15 (1) , 26570More Information

Hasson, Aida M; Patel, Rahul D; Sissoko, Cheick A; Brattain, Laura; Dion, Gregory R  (2024). 3D-printed neck phantoms with detailed anatomy for ultrasound-guided procedure and device testing. Laryngoscope investigative otolaryngology, 9 (4) , e1309More Information

Peng, Madeleine S; Jiang, Jialin; Polizzi, Lucia; Shi, Tiancheng; Ramkumar, Rakshitha; Anosike, Victor O; Guasoni, Giulia; Wamalwa, Alexandra M; Mariani, Madeline B; Sissoko, Cheick A; Tartt, Alexandria N; Fulmore, Camille; Rosoklija, Gorazd B; Huang, Yung-Yu; Arango, Victoria; McDonald, Shujuan T; Bitoljanu, Natasha; Mann, J John; Nguyen, Phi T; Dwork, Andrew J; Brown, Lewis M; Hen, René; Galfalvy, Hanga; Dupont, Maura B  (2026). Dysregulated adult hippocampal neurogenesis in major depressive disorder. Nature medicineMore Information

Sissoko, Cheick; Walker, Victoria; Dion, Gregory R  (2024). Biomechanical Evaluation of Tracheal Needle Puncture Forces: Comparative Analysis of Annular Ligaments and Tracheal Cartilage. Journal of biomechanical engineering, 146 (1) More Information

Jain, Aseem; Adams, Sarah M; Hale, Isaac; Voskoboynik, Anna; Sissoko, Cheick; Bugada, Matthew; Dion, Gregory R; Howell, Rebecca J; Friedman, Aaron D  (2023). A Novel Instrument Holder to Improve Operative Efficiency in Endoscopic Laryngeal and Airway Surgery. The Laryngoscope, 133 (12) , 3492-3498More Information

Research - Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45229
Cincinnati   Ohio, 45267
Phone: (513)-558-5348
sissokck@mail.uc.edu