Category: Blog

Our ESR Stefanie Fuchs (ESR14) together with her supervisor Torsten Mayr (Graz University of Technology) as well as our project partners Christine Mummery and Valeria Orlova (Leiden University Medical Center) and others have published a paper on “On-chip analysis of glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration in human induced pluripotent stem cells”.

The paper deals with in-situ metabolic analysis of dynamic human induced pluripotent stem cell cultures with integrated oxygen and pH sensors.

Read more here.

Our ESR Gabriel Werr (ESR8) together with his supervisor Maria Tenje and others have published a paper presenting an integrated system that enables repeated transfers of microfluidic chips used for cell culture between an incubator and a microscope whilst maintaining a physiological temperature and periodic cell media turnover.

Read more about this versatile tool for microfluidic users in need of a cost-effective platform here.

With a participant count of nearly 500 people, EUROoCS 2022 was a great success. The event spanned over two days of intense discussions, four parallel sessions with topics covering (multi)-organ and disease models, organoids-on-chip, read-out assays, standardization and qualification, among many others. A key takeaway of the conference was the recognition and discussion around standardization and validation of OoCs with the intention of the principles of 3Rs (reduction, replacement, and refinement of animal testing). We are especially proud of our ESRs Alessia (oral), Tarek (oral), Stefanie (oral), Lisette (oral), Kenny (poster), Merve (poster), Mara (poster), Joanna (poster), Tanvi (poster), Anders (poster) and Gabriel (poster) who presented their great achievements in the course of the conference.

Already one day prior to the start of the EUROoCS Conference 2022, the EUROoC ITN consortium met on 3 July 2022 in Grenoble, France for their bi-annual consortium meeting. The day was kicked off by a meeting of the EUROoC PIs who recapitulated the project, its challenges but also its great successes. Especially considering the massive restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, all beneficiaries found it particularly impressive how well the ESRs nevertheless worked together, maintained the exchange and built up their own professional network, from which they will undoubtedly benefit massively in their further professional careers. After this discussion forum, the ESRs joint the meeting and presented the progress they made during the last three years on their individual projects and explained how collaborations with each other enabled better development of their systems.

Finally, after a long day of great Organ-on-Chip science, the EUROoC consortium got to enjoy some delicious French cuisine during the conference dinner. It has been great to finally be able to meet everyone in person and to conclude the meeting in good company.

Our ESR Alessia Moruzzi (ESR1) and Stephanie Fuchs (ESR14) together with ther supervisors and others have published a paper presenting a novel cell injection and tissue generation concept relying on spheroids, which can be produced in large quantities and uniform size from induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human cardiomyocytes. 

Read more about their interesting work and results here.

Our project partners from the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen (NMI), the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Miltenyi Biotech (MTY) have published a paper on the “Microphysiological Stem Cell Models of the Human Heart”.Models of heart disease and drug responses are increasingly based on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) since their ability to capture human heart (dys-)function is often better than animal models. Simple monolayer cultures of hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, however, have shortcomings. Some of these can be overcome using more complex, multi cell-type models in 3D. Here we review modalities that address this, describe efforts to tailor
readouts and sensors for monitoring tissue- and cell physiology (exogenously and in situ) and discuss perspectives for implementation in industry and academia. Read more here.

Our ESR 12, Mara Lucchetti, was interview by the The Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) about her research topic, what she loves about science and where she sees herself in 5 years. To read more about Mara’s journey and get a deeper insight into the human gut microbiom click here.

On 4 April the ESRs attended the virtual workshop about “CV Writing & Interviewing Techniques” by Matthias Nagel. They learned how to make their CV stand out by giving a personal touch to the layout and how to use professional online profiles to support the CV. Additionally, they were introduced to several websites that could help them understand the company’s reputation, and the candidate’s market value (i.e. Glassdoor, Stepstone etc.). In the second half of the workshop, experienced principal investigators and recruiters from the ITN network conducted a panel discussion to elaborate on what they looked for during interviews and in candidates’ resumés. The ESRs found it particularly useful, as an exercise, to review each other CVs in order to gain a new perspective and to improve their CV format. As the last training workshop of the ITN, we hope that the ESRs can confidently progress towards their next steps in academia or industry.

Our project partners from the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen (NMI) and Jena University Hospital (JUH) have published a paper on the “Studying metabolism with multi-organ chips: new tools for disease modelling, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics”.

Non-clinical models to study metabolism including animal models and cell assays are often limited in terms of species translatability and predictability of human biology. This field urgently requires a push towards more physiologically accurate recapitulations of drug interactions and disease progression in the body. Multi-organ chips (MOCs) are an emerging technology that is well suited to providing a species-specific platform to study the various types of metabolism by recreating organ-level function. This review provides a resource for scientists aiming to study human metabolism by providing an overview of MOCs recapitulating aspects of metabolism, by addressing the technical aspects of MOC development and by providing guidelines for correlation with in silico models. Read more here.

Our project partners from the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have published a paper on the “Perspectives for Future Use of Cardiac Microtissues from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells”.

Organ-on-chip technology based on microfluidic devices has recently been combined with stem cell-derived organoids and microtissues to create vascularized structures that can be subjected to fluidic flow and to which immune cells can be added to mimic inflammation of tissue postinjury. Similarly, the integration of nerve cells in these models can provide insight into how the cardiac nervous system affects heart pathology, e. g. after myocardial infarction. This article summarizes various 3D microphysiological systems that have been used to model human heart tissue, including cell sources, applications, and readouts and considers these models and approaches in the context of cardiovascular disease. The authors reflect on perspectives for their future implementation in understanding disease mechanisms and the drug discovery pipeline. Read more here.