Monday, June 10, 2024 | 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM PT
Register for Track 1
Our field of Microphysiological Systems (MPS) is characterized by rapid evolution, with ongoing technological advancements driving our understanding of human biology and the development of predictive drug testing models, as well as applications in regenerative and personalized medicine. This rapid progress is made possible by the close collaboration between the academic and private sectors.
The Educational Session of the MPS meeting is designed to facilitate the interaction between young scientists and established leaders in both the academic and company environment in our field through a combination of hands-on experience and discussions. Moreover, young investigators in our field frequently face the decision of pursuing a career path in academia or industry.
In 2024, we are thrilled to introduce a novel format for the Educational Session. We plan to elevate the educational experience by presenting three distinct education sessions, each catering to different facets of our field:
- Track 1 – Hands-On Experience. Building on the education session of the past two years, this track is designed for immersive learning. Attendees will have the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience with the latest Chips, microfluidic controllers, and other essential tools in the field. Through live demonstrations and interactive presentations, they will explore real-world experiments and gain insight into the latest developments in OOC and MPS technology.
- Why you should attend. Young investigators in our field are often limited in the use and exposure to emerging technologies. This session, therefore, provides direct access to some of the newest and well-established technology existing today.
HOW SIGN-UP WORKS:
Participants may only sign up for four (4) sessions.
Please sign up for one session per time slot.
- Session 1 will run from 1:10pm-1:50pm
- Session 2 will run from 2:00pm-2:40pm
- Session 3 will run from 2:50pm-3:30pm
- Session 4 will run from 3:40pm-4:20pm
Presenters
AIM Biotech
AIM Inside: Mirror tissue ecosystems and dynamic transport using AIM Biotech’s vascularized BioAvatars
Predictive drug testing requires the development of true-to-life disease models that capture the complexity of entire tissue ecosystems, including barriers to drug administration and dynamic transport of therapeutics. Participants will learn how AIM Biotech approaches the design and implementation of humanized cell culture platforms, BioAvatars, that incorporate vascularized 3D microenvironments to achieve relevant cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions. Participants will gain hands on experience using the “plug-and-play” platforms, which allow gas exchange without the need for pumps or plate rocking.
Trainees will learn:
- Best practices for replicating angiogenesis and vasculogenesis on-chip, including hands-on experience to demonstrate media exchange.
- Application of vascularized 3D microenvironments for creating a new gold standard blood brain barrier (BBB) model.
- Methodology and advantages of vascularized organoids on-chip for immune cell perfusion, drug testing, and disease modeling of solid tumors.
- Challenges and limitations of AIM Biotech’s technologies.
CN Bio
Utilizing the PhysioMimix platform to explore transport and metabolism through tissue barrier models
Understanding how to establish biologically-relevant in vitro models of tissue barriers and how to apply these models to better understand drug transport and metabolism by said barriers.
Trainees will learn:
- How the PhysioMimix system works
- How tissue barrier models behave in an MPS platform
- How to characterize tissue functionality and drug transport/metabolism in an MPS platform
Dynamic42 GmbH
Immunocompetent models of liver- and vasculature-on-chip systems for drug testing and disease modeling
…our in-house produced biochips and their utilization in creating immunocompetent models of liver- and vasculature-on-chip systems for drug testing and disease modeling.
Mimicking the immune system poses one of the biggest challenges in developing in vitro cell culture systems. We will showcase how PBMCs and especially T cells can be perfused in the system, emulating blood flow conditions and the migration into tissues after stimulation. Therapeutic antibodies will be discussed as one example how perfused and tissue-resident immune cells can be activated in the system and how they have an impact on inflammatory processes.
Participants will gain hands-on experience in the handling of biochips, including chip preparation, cell loading and assembly of the perfusion. Live demonstrations will showcase the application of treatments, medium sampling, and the recovery of membranes for subsequent tissue analysis. After the practical part we will present established read-out possibilities like supernatant analysis for damage and inflammation markers, immunofluorescence staining to analyze tissue morphology, live in-chip imaging, and discuss setup as well as readout opportunities tailored to the needs of the participants.
We will also cover relevant technical specs like, low drug adsorption, standardized Luer-interface, and the “building-block” structure allowing multi-organ setups and discuss technical constrains of the system concerning throughput and automatization as well as biological limits arising for example from alternating cell sources or HLA mismatching.
Trainees will learn:
- Handling of Dynamic42 biochips including setup of perfusion
- Cellular assembly, immune cell perfusion and treatment of organ models
- Assay opportunities and limitations
Emulate
Harnessing Organ-Chips to Model Immune Response in Inflammatory Disease and Cell Therapy
This hands-on course will focus on how researchers can incorporate resident and circulating immune cells into Organ-Chips to study inflammatory immune response and cell therapy efficacy. It will include guidance for translating workflows from 2D to 3D cell culture, as well as the advantages/limitations of immunocompetent Organ-Chip models.
In the hands-on portion, attendees will have the opportunity to learn how to handle Emulate Organ-chips, prepare chip samples, and operate the Human Emulation System from our Organ-chip experts.
Trainees will learn:
- How to set up organ-chip cultures using the Human Emulation System, and how to obtain chip samples for multiplex data generation
- How circulating immune cells can be incorporated into Organ-Chip model designs to study inflammatory immune response and immunotherapy efficacy.
- Building complexity: How to translate your workflow from 2D to 3D cell culture and incorporate immunocompetence into your Organ-Chip models.
innoVitro GmbH
Mechanobiology in drug testing: High throughput in vitro systems with controlled physiological environment
The trainees will get an introduction to basic principles in mechanobiology, exemplified with e.g. Frank-Starling mechanism and stretch-sensitive cellular components. In a hands-on-demonstration, they will handle multiwell systems (24 to 96 well format) to control and measure the mechanical conditions of cell cultures. In parallel, representative results of cell analyses will be displayed and discussed. Participants will explore different levels of physiological and super-physiological stretching of tissue-like structures with the mechanical properties of human tissue and see the effect of such stretch application macroscopically.
The trainees will learn:
- The importance of the cellular mechanical environment for physiological drug responses
- Basic principles and considerations of in vitro mechanobiology (e.g. elasticity, plasticity, physiological stress and stretch levels)
- Hands-on experience with 24-96 well cell culture systems for physiological mechanical stimulation and the measurement of contractile responses
InSphero AG
Adding immune competence to 3D in vitro disease models – Finding the sweet spot between biological complexity and scalability by using Akura™ Technology
This hands-on course will focus on InSphero’s approaches on how immune competence can be added to 3D in vitro models for drug testing and disease modelling. Based on applications in the field of liver safety, metabolic diseases, and immune oncology, InSphero’s concepts of biological complexity, reproducibility and scalability will be explained. We will show examples on:
- How innate and adaptive immune response can be modelled in the Akura™ 96 Spheroid Microplates.
- How immune mediated drug-induced liver toxicity of, for example, bispecific antibodies can be modelled in the Akura™ Twin Microplate, the simplest and most scalable organ-organ crosstalk platform.
- How immune cell attachment to 3D tissues can be modelled in the Akura™ Immune Flow Platform, a long-term immune cell perfusion platform.
After the theoretical part, trainees will have the opportunity to perform medium exchange in all 3 platforms and thereby getting a feeling for scalability and automation-compatibility of the individual systems.
The trainees will learn:
- Different concepts and designs to study immune competence in vitro.
- How engineering helps to overcome biological challenges.
- Impressions of scalability and automation in industrial settings.
MIMETAS
Using MPS for high-throughput phenotypic screening
This hands-on course will focus on a high-throughput MPS platform, the OrganoPlate, for phenotypic screening. We will review the important considerations in setting up a high-throughput screen with 6 different example phenotypic assays including angiogenesis, immune cell migration, gut barrier disruption, neurite outgrowth, fibrosis, and vascular barrier disruption. Participants will gain hands-on experience working with the Mimetas OrganoPlate and perfusion system.
The trainees will learn:
- Considerations in designing high-throughput phenotypic assays for MPS
- How to handle a high-throughput MPS platform
NeuCyte, Inc.
Development of AD/ADRD MPS Platforms for Drug Screening
Combining iPSC-derived cells in defined ratios to establish AD/ADRD models for therapeutic discovery.
The trainees will learn generation of AD/ADRD 3D NeuroImmune models, assessment of reproducibility, development of 3D assays.
Organ-on-Chip Centre Twente (OoCCT), University of Twente
The Translational Organ-on-Chip Platform (TOP): An introduction to ISO-driven modular microfluidics for organs-on-chip research
In this hands-on, educational training session, participants will gain experience with the operation and design of ISO-driven, modular organ-on-chip platforms. We will give instructions on user-friendly application of ISO 22916:2022 and allow attendees to directly work with examples of TOP, our ISO compliant platform, and exemplary modules relevant to experimental end-goals. Participants will come away with a better understanding of the need for standardization within the field of organ-on-chip and of how to apply existing standards using the TOP Design Rules (TDRs), a strict subset of ISO-defined standards.
The trainees will learn:
- How to apply open design standards to organ-on-chip designs
- Design requirements and interfacing methods for modular microfluidics
- Benefits of modular microfluidics for experiments and experimental end-points
- Stakeholder roles in the development of TOP and organ-on-chip standards
Ossiform
Development of a novel 3D printed b-TCP scaffold for mimicking bone in vitro
3D cell culturing scaffolds for in vitro bone research as an alternative to animal models.
The trainees will learn the importance of relevant tissue models (soft vs hard tissues), how our scaffolds effectively mimic our bones in composition and structure, and applicability of our scaffolds and how they compare to animal models/animal-derived alternatives.
SynVivo Inc.
Vascularized Organ-on-Chip models for drug safety and efficacy testing
Vascularized Organ-on-Chip models provide realistic assessment of drug delivery, cell-cell, cell-drug interactions, and their underlying mechanisms toward the identification of toxicity and efficacy responses during drug development. This session will present the latest approaches to produce and standardize vascularized on-Chip models as cellular platforms for drug safety and efficacy testing, or in pathological models. Discussion includes Vasculature, Tumor, Lung ALI, Blood Brain Barrier, and Inflammation-on-Chip models.
The trainees will learn:
- Functionalizing the organ-on-chip model to mimic in vivo microenvironments.
- Standardizing your model- Understand what biological questions your model can answer.
- Assay Readouts to assess vascular injury induced by drugs or inflammation
- Hands-on demonstration of chips, syringe pumps for flow, and TEER-on-Chip devices and impedance analyzers.
TissUse GmbH
Bridging the Gap: Hands-On Training on Connecting Barrier and Parenchymal Organ Models for Permeation and Drug Metabolism Research
In this immersive course, participants will delve into the details of working with divers chip designs for co-culturing up to four distinct organ models within a single microfluidic circulation system. The expert presenter will illuminate the dynamic flow of medium within the chip, facilitating the smooth transport of metabolites and organ-specific products between different organ models.
This opportunity empowers participants to effortlessly integrate various organ models, including barrier models, 3D models, and 2D models, into the versatile chip system. Following this, participants can seamlessly link the chips to the Starter (control unit) to initiate the culture, unlocking a hands-on experience that merges theory with practical application. This course ensures that learning to use the HUMIMIC Chip is not only insightful but also remarkably user-friendly for scientists seeking to effortlessly integrate it into their research.
The trainees will learn:
- General handling of the HUMIMIC Chips
- Chip2 (co-culture of up to 2 organ models)
- Chip3 (co-culture of up to 3 organ models)
- Chip4 (co-culture of up to 4 organ models)
- Load the Chips with
- Cell culture insert for barrier models
- Cell suspension for 2D culture or matrix based organ models
- Spheroids
- 3D Matrix
- Practice how to perform a medium exchange
- Connect HUMIMIC Chips to the Starter (Control Unit)
- Time for questions and discussions
University of Central Florida & Hesperos Inc.
Design and application of pumpless function based multiorgan systems for disease modeling and therapeutic evaluation
The hands-on course will focus on the use and design of multiorgan systems with interchangeable organ components specific to the application at hand. Trainees will learn about integration of functional bioMEMs devices, as well as biomarker investigation capabilities on an interconnected microfluidic human-on-a-chip device, and the subsequent ability to translate these data to clinically relevant readouts.
The trainees will learn:
- How surface patterning can provide advantages for functional cell culture
- The ability of pumpless multiorgan devices to model various diseases
- Application of multiorgan devices for testing drug efficacy as well as off target toxicity
- The importance of functional readouts for greater clinical translatability
University of Twente
Combining cell microencapsulation approaches with organs-on-chips towards highly defined micro-environments
This hands-on course will focus on the development of complex 3D tissue models on-chip that allows biomimicry of compartmentalised cellular microenvironments, thereby enabling tight control over cell cell and/or cell ECM interactions. To this end, we will demonstrate how to use microfluidic droplet generators to homogeneously fabricate spherical cellular micro-compartments. These highly defined cellular micro-niches show unprecedent tunability of chemical/physical cues and are highly compatible with defined spatial cell assembly within microfluidic 3D culture systems. More specifically, we will present a case study reporting how this methodology can be applied in a bone-on-chip platform to generate compartments and separate distinct cellular populations on-chip.
The trainees will learn:
- Learn about cell micro-encapsulation techniques that can be combined with organ-on-chip platforms, which permit a tight control over the number of encapsulated cells per microgel.
- Applied case studies illustrating a micro-encapsulation technique that is compatible with either cell centring within the microgel or creating cell niches within hollow microspheres (by e.g., non-invasive microgel digestion).
- Identify possibilities for high-throughput cell micro-encapsulation methods that allows for scale-up processes.