Jan Lichtenberg's Biography

Jan Lichtenberg, CEO and Co-Founder, InSphero AG

Jan Lichtenberg, Ph.D., is Co-Founder and CEO of Swiss- and US-based InSphero Inc., the largest biotech specialized in 3D cell-culture technologies for discovery and safety. InSphero’s patented assay-ready 3D microtissues mimic the structure and functionality of organ tissue, e.g. liver, pancreas, or tumors including disease states like diabetes or NASH. The 3D microtissues allow for more predictive and reliable compound profiling for discovery and safety testing in a highly robust, rapid and cost-efficient way.

Jan co-founded InSphero in 2009 and grew the company to 65 employees in Switzerland and the US while expanding the business to encompass all top 15 global pharmaceutical companies. Prior to InSphero, Jan had VP R&D and Product Management positions at Hocoma AG (medical robotics) and Uwatec (microelectronics). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Neuchâtel and managed a research group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich. Since 2021 he is a Board Member of the Society of Laboratory Science and Screening (SLAS).

Modular Organ-on-a-Chip Solutions Combine 3D Microtissues and Flow to Accelerate Drug Discovery

Thursday, 14 November 2019 at 17:30

Add to Calendar ▼2019-11-14 17:30:002019-11-14 18:30:00Europe/LondonModular Organ-on-a-Chip Solutions Combine 3D Microtissues and Flow to Accelerate Drug DiscoveryMicrofluidics and Organ-on-a-Chip Asia 2019 in Tokyo, JapanTokyo, JapanSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Liver and pancreas constitute key organs in the metabolic syndrome and are highly interacting through different endocrine factors to maintain glucose homeostasis in the human body. An impaired function of one of the organs can cause metabolic diseases, such as diabetes or NASH. Studying these diseases requires a systemic model that can reproduce organ-organ-interactions. The practical implementation of human in-vitro multi-tissue systems in a scalable format includes several challenges. Key aspects encompass biological and technical reproducibility, availability of tissue models, possibility of on-demand production, their usability in suitable treatment windows, access to clinically relevant readouts, and system compatibility with standard lab processes. We implemented a human in-vitro multi-tissue system in a scalable format using 3D organotypic microtissues for establishing organ-organ interactions. The liver model consisted of a primary human hepatocyte/Kupffer cell co-culture with preserved metabolic and inflammatory function over at least two weeks. The primary human islet microtissues comprised all pancreatic endocrine cells at physiological ratio and remained glucose responsive over the same culturing period. The different microtissues were assembled in a microfluidic chip using a pipetting robot enabling an adequate number of replicates at minimal operational complexity for compound testing with access to a wide range of readouts.

Add to Calendar ▼2019-11-14 00:00:002019-11-15 00:00:00Europe/LondonMicrofluidics and Organ-on-a-Chip Asia 2019Microfluidics and Organ-on-a-Chip Asia 2019 in Tokyo, JapanTokyo, JapanSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

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