Organoid Culture Automation

Organoids are miniaturized 3D in vitro models that partially recapitulate physiological features of in vivo organs. Becoming a popular technological platform for early development research and disease study, organoid models are normally produced in large ammounts and investigated under well-defined experimental conditions. In order to have robust and reproducible downstream outcomes, the throughput and consistency of organoid differentiation thus is an important but not fully resolved issue.

Here as an exploratory project, we aimed to take advantage of automated fluidics and transwell culture to develop a low-perturbation organoid automated culture system. We suppose minimizing perturbation derived from manual culture medium refreshment can enhance differentiation consistency of multicellular samples. In our setup, pre-formed embryo stem cell spheroids were placed at the apical side of the transwell, and media were refreshed automatedly via a programmable multi-channel fluidics. Cardiac organoids were differentiated in high-throughput within 1.5 week without human intervention, and characterized by bulk-RNA sequencing, immunofluorescence, and proteomic analysis.

The device was patented (pending, pdf). More information would be available after the manuscript get published. Stay tuned.