UNMET NEED
Spinning bioreactors have been used for three-dimensional (3D) cell culture and generation of organ-like tissues (organoids). However, current spinning bioreactors available on the market (e.g. the Corning® disposable spinner flasks) have several major challenges including requiring a large volume of medium and incubator space, large sample-to-sample variability associated with current methods, and the limitation of tissue heterogeneity. There is a critical need to develop an organoid platform with reduced cost, higher throughput, and increased reproducibility and one that better resembles critical aspects of human cortical development.
PROBLEM SOLVED
The JHU inventors have engineered a miniaturized spinning bioreactor using 3D design and printing technology and developed a protocol to generate forebrain-specific organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which recapitulate human embryonic cortical development in a reproducible and quantifiable manner. The inventors also developed protocols for midbrain and hypothalamic organoids. The versatile, simple-to-use, cost-effective, and reproducible brain-region-specific organoid platform provides accessible and affordable technology to a broad scientific community.
STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT
- The JHU inventors have developed and optimized the design of the miniaturized spinning bioreactor that requires as little as 2 ml of media per well, a 50-fold reduction in media consumption, has drastically reduced incubator space, and can be stackable.
- For proof of concept, the inventors employed the forebrain organoid quantitative platform developed using the SpinΩ to model Zika virus (ZIKV) exposure at different stages of pregnancy
- The results suggest that ZIKV, upon access to the fetal brain, targets neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and causes microcephalic-like deficits in cortical development
PUBLICATIONS: Qian et al., 2016, Cell 165, 1238–1254 May 19, 2016
