In June 2024, the third MPS World Summit took place in Seattle, Washington. Over 130 talks and panel discussions and 400 posters boosted the latest MPS developments. The extensive program was accompanied by hands-on workshops, satellite and consortium meetings, and an exchange with over 40 international organizations and companies. The small delegation of the µOrganoLab consisting of Peter, Hannah, and Alessia had the chance to network with leaders in the OoC field, gaining new insights and sharing expertise by presenting recent progress.
Especially outstanding were this year’s panels on the applicability and standardization domain, pioneering commercial implementation, and supporting collaboration with researchers. One week embellished with keynotes and events, our three team members collected expertise for the entire µOrganoLab, which was shared in a group meeting back home.
But not only was the program overwhelming – is there a more beautiful place for a conference than a city situated on the shore and overlooked by the remarkable mountain Mount Rainier? This was the view our team delegation was welcomed to in Seattle. Dinner on the Garden Terrace of the Seattle Convention Center and a Macro Party in a scenic foundry completed the city’s impression.
µOrganoLab Contributions
During the fantastic program, our team contributed to a workshop, a roundtable discussion, a presentation, and two poster presentation with the most recent developments in our lab.
Peter contributed to a workshop, where he shared his insights into career development in academia. As a panelist, he discussed in a roundtable session how MPS can be employed to support regulatory decision making. In an amazing presentation, Peter displayed the potential of organ-on-chip technology to model key players of metabolic and endocrine disorders.
In the session “MPS for cardiovascular diseases”, Alessia shared insights into the multi-parametric monitoring of hiPSC-derived cardiac tissue in a Heart-on-Chip approach. A sophisticated chip design enables assessment of functional 3D cardiac tissue under pathophysiological conditions and potential therapeutic interventions. Aligned cardiac fibers allow to be paced throughout long-term culture and simultaneously being monitored non-invasively. Thus, dynamic changes in the metabolic rate and tissue composition can be studied in real-time.
Hannah presented a new approach of a standardized plug&play system to study inter-organ reactions. In the Multi-Organ Chip Platform different organ modules can be integrated without tubing and unplugged for individual culture or assessment. Focusing on tumor-immune interaction, the co-culture of breast cancer organoids and lymphoid-tissue was analyzed with and without treatment of the tumor with chemotherapeutics.
Five days of intensive science, our team was inspired by the new impressions and excited about upcoming progress and collaborations. Leaving the beautiful city of Seattle, we are already looking forward to meet international scientists again at the MPS World Summit 2025 in Brussels, Belgium.
