Full grown intestinal organoid @Liberali group
August 31, 2020
FMI is a partner in the new EU “HCA|Organoid” project
The EU research project “HCA (Human Cell Atlas)|Organoid” was launched today. It aims at validating organoids as faithful models of human biology, combining single-cell profiling and organoid technology. Towards this goal, Europe’s leading organoid researchers as well as experts in single-cell technologies have teamed up. The FMI – through group leader Prisca Liberali – is a project partner.
Single-cell technologies provide a fundamentally new perspective for understanding biology, with profound potential to enable therapeutic advances and to put Europe at the forefront of personalized medicine and regenerative biology. In order to streamline research and accelerate scientific progress in this area, the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) initiative provides worldwide coordination toward the goal of establishing comprehensive reference maps of all cell types in the human body.More about the Human Cell Atlas project
Within the global context provided by the HCA, the new European research project HCA|Organoid has set out to establish an “Organoid Cell Atlas”. By creating well-characterized in vitro models of human organs, this resource will enable future discovery-driven and translational research on rare genetic diseases, complex multifactorial diseases, and on cancer. This initiative will firmly establish single-cell analysis of human organoids within the HCA and thereby advance biomedical research. The HCA|Organoid project brings together a consortium of eight partner institutions – among which the FMI - including experts in organoid technology, single-cell profiling, advanced imaging, and bioinformatics from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In addition to its initial focus on single-cell profiling of brain and colon organoids, the project seeks to initiate an open, collaborative network of researchers and initiatives aimed at the single-cell characterization of a diverse set of human organoids.Prisca Liberali and her research group at the FMI are experts in the development of 3D intestinal organoids from single stem cells and they pioneered imaging technologies for profiling organoids across biological scales, from molecules and cells to full tissues. They will participate in the HCA|Organoid project.
“It’s exciting to be a partner in this project,” says Prisca Liberali. “We will be involved in profiling hundreds of different human organoids line, exploring human to human heterogeneity and gain novel insights into human development, cancer progression and tissue regeneration.”
Full grown intestinal organoid @Liberali group