报告人：余严军 教授（新加坡国立大学）
Professor Hanry Yu researches the interface between Mechanobiology, biomaterials and tissue engineering, biomedical optics and image data analytics. He published >180 journal articles, >250 conference papers, >50 patent applications; spun off 6 companies, and trained many PhD students and postdocs with successful careers in academia and industry. He led multiple education and research programs; and advise various agencies, organizations and institutions. He is a handling editor of Biomaterials.
ABSTRACT：Soft tissue organoids have found various applications in disease modelling and drug testing. Forming organoids is relatively straightforward but maintaining them in culture can be tricky. We had previously developed a class of soft macroporous cellulose sponges for forming and maintenance of liver cell spheroids. We also demonstrated its ability to preserve the heterogeneity and complexity of patient-derived xenograft of liver cancer. To retrieve the spheroids/organoids for applications and characterization, we have developed a variant that is readily dissolved with reducing agents. A liver progenitor cell differentiate rapidly in the 3D organoid configuration. To enable high-content and higher throughput applications in drug screening, we further developed a transparent variant that form soft macroporous hydrogel sponge directly in multi-well cell culture plates. These developments enable the studies and drug testing applications at different scales.