Organoids, Spheroids & Organs-on-Chips 2024 Agenda

Title to be Confirmed.
Alice Soragni, Assistant Professor, University of California Los Angeles, United States of America

Title to be Confirmed.
Kevin Healy, Jan Fandrianto and Selfia Halim Distinguished Professorship in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America

Title to be Confirmed.
Hervé Tiriac, Assistant Researcher, University of California-San Diego, United States of America

Applications of Human Brain Organogenesis in Biomedical Sciences and Engineering
Alysson Muotri, Professor, Director of the Stem Cell Program, University of California-San Diego, United States of America

Structural and transcriptional changes during early brain maturation follow fixed developmental programs defined by genetics. However, whether this is true for functional network activity remains unknown, primarily due to experimental inaccessibility of the initial stages of the living human brain. We developed cortical organoids that spontaneously display periodic and regular oscillatory network events that are dependent on glutamatergic and GABAergic signaling. These nested oscillations exhibit cross-frequency coupling, proposed to coordinate neuronal computation and communication. As evidence of potential network maturation, oscillatory activity subsequently transitioned to more spatiotemporally irregular patterns, capturing features observed in preterm human electroencephalography (EEG). These results show that the development of structured network activity in the human neocortex may follow stable genetic programming, even in the absence of external or subcortical inputs. Our approach provides novel opportunities for investigating and manipulating the role of network activity in the developing human cortex. Applications for neurological disorders, brain evolution, and engineering will be discussed.

Title to be Confirmed.
Roger Kamm, Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America

Title to be Confirmed.
Steven C. George, Edward Teller Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California-Davis, United States of America

Title to be Confirmed.
Holger Schmidt, Narinder Kapany Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of California-Santa Cruz, United States of America