NOVEL SYSTEM CAN INCREASE REPRODUCIBILITY IN CEREBRAL ORGANOID RESEARCH AND SHOWS PROMISE FOR LOWERING LEVELS OF CELLULAR STRESS.
A team of engineers at UC Santa Cruz has developed a new method for remote automation of the growth of cerebral organoids – miniature, three-dimensional models of brain tissue grown from stem cells.
Longevity.Technology: Cerebral organoids allow researchers to study and engineer key functions of the human brain with a level of accuracy not possible with other models. This has implications for understanding brain development and the effects of pharmaceutical drugs for treating neurodegenerative diseases or other diseases of aging.
Research on aging has primarily been conducted using cell cultures, yeast, C elegans and animal models (flies, mice). However, longevity research is committed to unpicking the pathways that regulate aging and developing interventions that could slow biological aging and delay the onset and progression of age-related diseases in humans. So, while we have a wealth of non-human data, how much if it is directly applicable to extending human healthspan?
Organoids enable interventional studies that are difficult or impossible to conduct in humans, while at the same time providing valuable human data – their potential as a significant preclinical model tool is enormous.
In this new study, which has been published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, researchers from the UCSC Braingeneers group (probably the best name you’ll read this week!) detail their automated, internet-connected microfluidics system, called “Autoculture”; this system precisely delivers feeding liquid to individual cerebral organoids in order to optimise their growth without the need for human interference with the tissue culture.
Continue reading… ““Braingeneers” automate growth of brain tissue organoids on a chip”