Traditional 2D cell culture models have made it possible to understand certain aspects of cell biology, mechanisms of diseases and drug action. Unfortunately this is also fraught with disadvantages, since these cultured cells do not mimic the natural structures or mi-lieu of tissues contributed by heterogenous cell interactions. Recent advances in 3D tis-sue cultures have made it possible to imitate complex cellular processes opening new avenues to study embryonic development, model diseases and practice precision medi-cine. These 3D systems range from spheroid cultures grown in low attachment plates to organoids, cells embedded in scaffold and micropatterned plates with microfluidics. Sev-eral landmark studies have demonstrated that these 3D models are more physiologically relevant and closely represent developmental processes, that they are better disease mod-els, and that they predict drug dosage and toxicity more accurately. Thus 3D culture is the next frontier in cell and developmental biology providing a powerful platform for establishing the potential of stem cells in precision medicine and regenerative biology and tissue engineering.
The goal of this topic is to promote our understanding of developmental and disease bi-ology mechanisms using stem cells cultured in 3D and bring out recent advances and new methodologies to improve the existing 3D models.
Themes of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Recent advances in 3D stem cell methodology
• Modelling new disease and developmental mechanisms
• Applications and therapeutic potential of 3D models
• Functional variomics and resources for precision medicine
Traditional 2D cell culture models have made it possible to understand certain aspects of cell biology, mechanisms of diseases and drug action. Unfortunately this is also fraught with disadvantages, since these cultured cells do not mimic the natural structures or mi-lieu of tissues contributed by heterogenous cell interactions. Recent advances in 3D tis-sue cultures have made it possible to imitate complex cellular processes opening new avenues to study embryonic development, model diseases and practice precision medi-cine. These 3D systems range from spheroid cultures grown in low attachment plates to organoids, cells embedded in scaffold and micropatterned plates with microfluidics. Sev-eral landmark studies have demonstrated that these 3D models are more physiologically relevant and closely represent developmental processes, that they are better disease mod-els, and that they predict drug dosage and toxicity more accurately. Thus 3D culture is the next frontier in cell and developmental biology providing a powerful platform for establishing the potential of stem cells in precision medicine and regenerative biology and tissue engineering.
The goal of this topic is to promote our understanding of developmental and disease bi-ology mechanisms using stem cells cultured in 3D and bring out recent advances and new methodologies to improve the existing 3D models.
Themes of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Recent advances in 3D stem cell methodology
• Modelling new disease and developmental mechanisms
• Applications and therapeutic potential of 3D models
• Functional variomics and resources for precision medicine
