Peter Loskill's Biography

Peter Loskill, Assistant Professor for Experimental Regenerative Medicine; Attract Group Leader Organ-on-a-Chip, Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

Dr. Peter Loskill is head of the Fraunhofer Attract group Organ-on-a-Chip in the Department of Cell and Tissue Engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB. Dr. Loskill graduated in 2012 from Saarland University with a PhD in Physics focusing on Biointerface science. He then spent 3 years in the laboratory of Prof. K. E. Healy at the University of California at Berkeley. There, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow and project leader, funded by the NIH NCATS TissueChip program and the German Science Foundation, and developed organ-on-a-chip systems based on human iPS-cell technology. In 2015, he was named as one of Technology Review’s “Innovators under 35 Germany”. He now leads an independent research group focusing on the integration of cardiac and adipose tissue into microfluidic environments and applications for drug screening and environmental toxicology testing.

Advanced Organ-on-a-Chip Systems: Integrated Microphysiological Platforms Recapitulating Complex Human Tissue

Tuesday, 18 June 2019 at 15:15

Add to Calendar ▼2019-06-18 15:15:002019-06-18 16:15:00Europe/LondonAdvanced Organ-on-a-Chip Systems: Integrated Microphysiological Platforms Recapitulating Complex Human TissueOrgan-on-a-Chip and Tissue-on-a-Chip Europe 2019 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Drug discovery and development to date has relied on animal models, which are useful, but fail to resemble human physiology. The discovery of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) has led to the emergence of a new paradigm of drug screening using human patient- and disease-specific organ/tissue-models. One promising approach to generate these models is by combining the hiPSC technology with microfluidic devices tailored to create microphysiological environments and recapitulate 3D tissue structure and function. Such organ-on-a-chip systems (OoCs) or microphysiological systems combine human genetic background, in vivo-like tissue structure, physiological functionality, and “vasculature-like” perfusion.

Using microfabrication techniques, we have developed a variety of OoCs that incorporate complex human 3D tissues and keep them viable and functional over multiple weeks, including “Retina-on-a-chip”, “Choroid-on-a-chip”, “Heart-on-a-chip”, “Pancreas-on-a-chip and a “White adipose tissue(WAT)-on-a-chip”. The OoCs generally consist of three functional components: organ-specific tissue chambers mimicking in vivo structure and microenvironment of the respective tissues; “vasculature-like” media channels enabling a precise and computationally predictable delivery of soluble compounds (nutrients, drugs, hormones); “endothelial-like” barriers protecting the tissues from shear forces while allowing diffusive transport. The small scale and accessibility for in situ analysis makes our OoCs amenable for both massive parallelization and integration into a high-content-screening approach.

The adoption of OoCs in industrial and non-specialized laboratories requires enabling technologies that are user-friendly and compatible with automated workflows. We have developed technologies for automated 3D tissue generation as well as for the flexible plug&play connection of individual OoCs into multi-organ-chips. These technologies paired with the versatility of our OoCs pave the way for applications in drug development, personalized medicine, toxicity screening, and mechanistic research.

Add to Calendar ▼2019-06-18 00:00:002019-06-19 00:00:00Europe/LondonOrgan-on-a-Chip and Tissue-on-a-Chip Europe 2019Organ-on-a-Chip and Tissue-on-a-Chip Europe 2019 in Rotterdam, The NetherlandsRotterdam, The NetherlandsSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

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