Title: Towards Bioengineering Scalable Models of Human Central Nervous System Development and Disease
Abstract: Recent years have brought about a rapid acceleration in the adoption of human-based ‘new approach methodologies’ (NAMs) in drug discovery, toxicity testing, and basic science applications, thus highlighting the ongoing need to engineer reproducibility, scalability, and biological mimicry into such systems. In this talk, I will discuss some of our efforts to engineer human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-based models of central nervous system (CNS) development and function with a focus on scalability and applicability in screening applications. First, I will discuss our directed differentiation method using long-term spheroid culture to generate previously inaccessible, late-born spinal cord neuronal populations and their implementation in an in vitro model of afferent pain signaling. Next, I will discuss our single rosette cortical organoid array (SRCOArray) platform which enables high-throughput generation and analysis of thousands of singularly polarized cortical organoids in a standardized multi-well plate format. While perhaps seemingly unrelated, these two approaches are linked in their use of developmental timing as a crucial variable in hPSC-based models to access the myriad cell types involved in CNS development and function while maintaining scalability and reproducibility.
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https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91814162149?pwd=AYgwgbFNekOLHyQrj7wUCkxem9b2Yw.1
Meeting ID: 918 1416 2149
Passcode: 970506