Organ(oid) Music
In April, over two hundred scientists and trainees gathered in Rochester to discuss the promise of organoids at the third annual Minnesota Organoid Symposium: From Cells to Cures.
Organoids are three-dimensional tissue cultures – usually derived from stem cells – that can be cultured to function like complex organs and other primary tissues. Organoids “represent a way to model human biology more accurately, reduce reliance on animal testing, personalize medicine, and ask questions we have never been able to ask before,” says Dr. Brenda Ogle, Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and co-lead organizer of the Symposium.
A diagram from Dr. Brenda Ogle’s lab showing the bioprinting of stem cells in a 3D-bioprinted chambered cardiac organoid (Image courtesy of the Ogle Research Group).
Keynote speakers trainees with posters presented advances in organoid research, including non-invasive biosensing, cardiac organoid cryopreservation, and organoid-based tissue replacement therapies. “We are witnessing the growth of a field that sits at the intersection of discovery, innovation, and transformative medicine,” says Ogle.
Poster presenters at the Minnesota Organoid Symposium.
The Symposium is driven by the question, “How can organoids and other microphysiological systems advance medicine?” Ogle and Dr. Charles Howe, Chair of the Division of Experimental Neurology and Director of the Mayo Clinic Stem Cell and Organoid Core and co-lead organizer of the Symposium, began answering this question through a Minnesota Partnership grant. In a series of studies, they aimed to create organoids of human hearts, brains, and intestines that could be used as essential tools for understanding diseases, testing new treatments, and even replacing damaged tissues.
While working on the Minnesota Partnership grant, Ogle and Howe wanted to create a space for the University and Mayo Clinic to connect and discuss the many different applications of organoid research. “The first Symposium in 2023 was very small with mainly scientists who were already known in the organoid space,” says Howe. “Last year, we began opening it up more to the community and started our first poster session. This year, we nearly doubled in participant size with many trainees.”
To Ogle and Howe, the Symposium is also a catalyst for the next generation of scientists in organoid research. “It is a chance for students to see that they are a part of something bigger,” says Ogle. “Their curiosity, their persistence - it matters.” Howe emphasizes that “it is the trainees who are going to make the biggest strides in applying organoids to model and treat diseases and to show us where new organoid research will take us.”
As for the future of the Symposium and organoid research, Ogle and Howe are currently working on securing a grant aimed at making the state of Minnesota a center for manufacturing organoids that can be distributed across the world. The team is also hoping to expand the organoid community and bring in more scientists and trainees from even more US and international institutions to the Symposium.
(Left to right) Organoid scientists Drs. Brenda Ogle and John Bischof from University of Minnesota and Drs. Charles Howe and Brooke Druliner from Mayo Clinic.
