MilliporeSigma Workshop

Assay Ready Human Colon Organoids for Drug Screening Applications
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
08:15 – 08:45
Sunset Ballroom

Delivered by: Vi Chu, Ph.D., Head of R&D, Cellular Assays, Biological Reagents & Kits, MilliporeSigma (The Life Science Company of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany)

In recent years, 3D organoids have emerged as a new tool for disease modeling and for pre-clinical toxicity screening applications. Organoids are self-organizing three-dimensional structures derived from either pluripotent stem cells or from primary tissues with the ability to recapitulate some of the spatial architecture and in vivo function of organs. Here, we describe a stepwise protocol in serum-free medium to efficiently differentiate human pluripotent stem cells to colonic organoids. Two human iPS cell lines were used; one derived from PBMCs and the other from human foreskin fibroblasts. Colonic organoids generated from both hiPS lines could be propagated and expanded in long-term culture and expressed the appropriate colonic markers. In comparison to previous 2D in vitro cell culture models, organoids resemble very closely the intestinal epithelial layer in vivo. They can be used in applications including high throughput screenings for agents that target the intestinal epithelium and for the identification of potential toxicity of new compounds. Human iPS derived colon organoids could be cryopreserved and upon thawing were highly viable and could be further expanded and re-developed into 3D colon organoids. Efforts are underway to further characterize the functional attributes of the colon organoids and validate their use in a low to mid-throughput toxicology screen.