Wednesday, 01 December 2021 15:42

Animal Welfare Research Prize of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture goes to organ-on-a-chip researchers Featured

Two scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster are being honored with this year's Animal Welfare Research Award from the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). Scientists Dr. Henrik Renner and Dr. Jan M. Bruder will receive the award for their development of a midbrain on a chip that can be used to conduct toxicity tests and screen active ingredients for drug development.

The team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine has developed a method that can be used to produce midbrain organoids from human cells in a completely automated way. First, neural progenitor cells are generated from human pluripotent stem cells using small molecules. The midbrain organoids are based on human cells. The so-called human small molecule neural precursor cell (smNPC) cells are able to generate the cell types relevant for midbrain organoids faster and with greater reproducibility than conventional methods. This can also be done in high throughput with pipetting robots. The organoids possess midbrain dopaminergic neurons, which are important because they can be damaged by certain toxic substances in the human organism, for example.

According to the researchers, their development could save up to 10 percent in animal testing.

The prize is worth 25,000 euros.

Sources:
https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/tierschutzforschungspreis-2021-1986114
https://www.mpg.de/15967889/1030-vasb-050783-mittelhirn-organoide-fuer-automatisierte-wirkstoff-und-krankheitsforschung
Reinhardt, P., Glatza, M., Hemmer, K., Tsytsyura, Y., Thiel, C. S., Höing, S., Moritz, S., Parga, J. A., Wagner, L., Bruder, J. M., Wu, G., Schmid, B., Röpke, A., Klingauf, J., Schwamborn, J. C., Gasser, T., Schöler, H. R., & Sterneckert, J. (2013). Derivation and expansion using only small molecules of human neural progenitors for neurodegenerative disease modeling. PloS one, 8(3), e59252. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059252
Renner, H., Grabos, M., Becker, K. J., Kagermeier, T. E., Wu, J., Otto, M., Peischard, S., Zeuschner, D., TsyTsyura, Y., Disse, P., Klingauf, J., Leidel, S. A., Seebohm, G., Schöler, H. R., & Bruder, J. M. (2020). A fully automated high-throughput workflow for 3D-based chemical screening in human midbrain organoids. eLife, 9, e52904. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52904