Takeaways from the 2nd Next Gen Organ-on-Chip & Organoids networking workshop

On 23-24 August, AMIRES attended the 2^nd Next Gen Organ-on-Chip & Organoids workshop organized by the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) by WEDER Gilles, PAOLETTI Samantha, REVOL Vincent, etc. in Geneva, Switzerland. CSEM also coordinates the EU-funded OrganTrans project in which AMIRES is a partner. AMIRES was represented by the attendance of Dr. Yevhen Horokhovatskyi.

Organoids are small, self-organized 3D tissue cultures derived from stem cells (body’s raw materials from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated) that can be crafted to replicate much of the complexity of an organ. This way of culturing tissues gives scientists a detailed view of how organs form and grow, providing them with new insights into human development and disease.

At the same time, the Organ-on-a-Chip is a cutting-edge technology that can emulate the physiological environment and functionality of human organs on a chip. This allows disease modelling and drug testing, giving the opportunity to see how drugs interact with these “mini-organs”, potentially revolutionizing the field of drug discovery and opening new approaches to personalized medicine. All of this, eventually, shows great potential in the novel drug development pipeline and future regenerative therapies.

CSEM first organized the Next Gen Organ-on-Chip & Organoids workshop in 2020 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and aroused great interest in this topic mainly among life science companies. At that time, many specialists, researchers, and leading industries attended this event presenting technical challenges and solutions in the application of the next generation organ-on-chip and organoids in disease modeling, drug testing, and organ replacement. Due to the COVID pandemics, CSEM organized also virtual events within this topic to replace the in-person event. However, after two years, CSEM hosted the 2nd networking workshop that had great success. Four partners of the OrganTrans project, CSEM, REGENHU, KUGELMEIERS, AMIRES, and more than 270 experts from the pharma & biotech industry, clinicians, organ-on-chip suppliers, regulatory experts, and researchers met under the same roof. Additionally, more than 25 organizations, including start-ups, large companies, and SMEs, presented their innovative products and emerging technologies at exhibition sessions.

Overall, the workshop focus was on the applications of organoids, 3D cell-based and organ-on-chip technologies for drug discovery and development, diagnostics, consumer safety, future regenerative therapies and organ replacement. The speakers presented data on the validation of the newest technologies of organ-on-chip, such as brain, kidney, lung, intestine, stomach, liver and many more. These chips are based on microfluidics, deep machine learning, automatized systems, and even personalized 3D bioprinting platforms. Such technologies complement the development of better disease organoid models, as well as the understanding of the different levels of interaction fostering future therapeutic approaches to human and animal health. However, the translation of this novel engineering platform into routine pharmacological and medical scenarios remains to be realized.