We’re seeking Early Career Scientists to establish their own independent
#research
program, with competitive funding, across three key focal areas. Open to mature
#scientists
with PhD or Postdoctoral training in
#HumanModelSystems
.
Apply to
#TeamIHB
here:
Welcome to the
#IHBResearch
Twitter channel 👋
We’re excited to be sharing news of the latest research into
#Organoids
and connecting with all those interested in this scientific field 🧫
Find out more about our work here ➡️
#Science
#HumanModelSystems
We have a big announcement!
You may have heard of the ITB (Institute for Translational Bioengineering) and our exciting research into
#Organoids
. Well, the ITB is now the IHB (Institute of Human Biology)—and our research has suddenly got a lot more exciting 🧵⬇️
Could
#organoids
be used to unlock the secrets of human evolution? In a review for
@NatureRevGenet
,
#TeamIHB
describes how the sequencing of genomes from modern and archaic hominins, great apes and other primates is revealing human-specific genetic changes. ⬇️
Allow us to introduce the Multi-tissue Systems Engineering team 📣
These scientists explore novel approaches to increase tissue-tissue complexity in
#Organoids
🧫
Learn more about their pioneering work:
#MeetTeamIHB
#MultiTissueEngineering
We’re proud to introduce you to
#TeamIHB
, a group of highly talented and curious scientists! 📣
We’ll be taking you through each IHB department in turn, starting this week with the Developmental Systems and Computational Biology ⬇️
Bioengineered models of the immune system like
#organoids
& organs-on-chips may help us
1) understand human (patho)physiology &
2) design better therapies for immune-related pathologies.👏
@natrevbioeng
review by
#TeamIHB
's Nikolche Gjorevski & colleagues
Join us in giving a warm welcome to our newest team member, Prof Michael N Hall!
He augments
#TeamIHB
's basic biology expertise via his new lab on adipose tissue biology
while he leads his
@biozentrum
lab in parallel. A true bridge between academia and industry.
@UniBasel_en
Today, we’re praising the Organoid Gene Editing team!
This group focuses on overcoming technical challenges in implementing CRISPR-mediated gene engineering in adult stem cell-derived
#organoids
. It applies these learnings to study adult stem cells in homeostasis and disease ⬇️
The potential for
#Organoids
to revolutionise human understanding and healthcare can’t be underestimated. For example, generating brain-like tissue from human stem cells could help shed light on our brain development ⬇️
🥳Happy Birthday IHB! 🎂 One year ago,
@Roche
launched our Institute of Human Biology. To mark the occasion, we’re celebrating our incredible team and the milestones we have collectively achieved.
#TeamIHB
#organoids
#humanmodelsystems
What are the ethical questions around
#Organoids
research? And could we use them as human grafts in the future?
Nikolce Gjorevski of
#TeamIHB
says this is “not science fiction,” despite many obstacles.
🎧 Listen to
@ngjorevski
in this Impulse
#podcast
:
#TeamIHB
is all about sharing and learning from the best scientific minds. And one of the stars of our team is
@RyoOkuda5
, a postdoctoral researcher who is collaborating on a project that has huge potential for
#cancer
therapy. Check out his team ⬇️
#TeamIHB
is
#hiring
! Want to be an innovative team lead, driving tech development for automated, large-scale
#organoid
production and enabling increased reproducibility and physiological relevance of organoid model systems? apply now 👉 Pls RT!
Very excited to share that we have just launched a joint doctoral programme for Translational Engineering of Biological Systems together with
@ETH_BSSE
Today we’re introducing you to Anna Bremser, another fab
#TeamIHB
scientist who works within the Phenotyping team on establishing automation protocols for
#organoids
. Her focus is on translating organoid cultures, assays, stainings and screening projects into robotic platforms ⬇️
Thanks
@erturklab
for bringing wildDISCO to
#TeamIHB
!🕺Had a blast discussing how to harness
#AI
& cell-level
#imaging
to speed up drug development. This weekend we're reading their
@NatureBiotech
paper on whole-body immunolabeling and imaging in mice.
Another brilliant
#TeamIHB
scientist collaborating on ground-breaking work,
@mike_nikolaev
is part of the Organoid Engineering team. His laser focus is on creating lab-grown organs that mimic real life with remarkable accuracy and could lead to personalized medicine. ⬇️
"The Institute of Human Biology will be one of the world's research centers where revolutionary innovations will emerge and where we will get closer to the biology of human organs and diseases." -
@HansClevers
looks ahead to
@IHB_Research
in 10 years. 👇
#TeamIHB
Drum roll please, for the Microtechnologies team! 📣
These scientists develop microfluidics, optics & mechatronics to analyse biological systems, including
#Organoids
. Their aim is to create a suite of microtechnologies
#Science
#MicroEngineering
#TeamITB
Fun times at the
#IHB
internal
#launch
event on the
#Roche
campus! Our teams were able to showcase all their cool science on large digital posters, while our speakers included
@HansClevers
,
@TheLutolfLab
and CEO Thomas Schinecker, among many others. ⬇️
Have you ever seen real-time footage of a tumor developing outside a living organism? We are thrilled to announce a new paradigm in ex vivo cancer modelling . Let’s have a quick look!
The success of
#IHB
is entirely due to the wonderful and
#inspiring
people who work in its labs. This week, we’re singling out senior
#scientist
@JyotiRao_
, who is part of the Multi-Tissue Systems Engineering team.
Science is about discovery and evolution.
#Organoids
may be used for applications such as drug development in the future, but the technology is “far from perfect” and not quite there yet 🧵⬇️
Great afternoon today with
@Biozentrum
@UniBasel
#MolecularBiology
bachelor students!
#TeamIHB
had fun showing our research and potential career pathways.
#Basel
is a strong hub for the life sciences and we are glad to meet and encourage the young talent in our community.
🙌Dr🙌Umut Kilik is in the house! Huge round of applause for
@KlkUmut
for successfully defending his thesis on human intestinal
#EvoDevo
using single-cell genomics,
#organoids
& comparative genomics.🤗
#TeamIHB
wishes you all the best in your next step of your hitchhiking journey!
#TeamIHB
’s success is due to the fabulous and inspiring people who work here. This week, we’re spotlighting
@NinoukAkkerman
, who joined the
#Organoid
Gene Editing team in April. Her past work on
#organoid
models fueled her desire to further explore their untapped potential.
Good news!
#TeamIHB
has just opened new
#laboratories
at Roche Glycart AG in Schlieren, near Zurich.
To celebrate, we held an event with our Schlieren
#colleagues
, including Pablo Umaña, Christian Klein and Priska Rüegg (plus
#organoid
cake), to share what we’ll be working on ⬇️
🎓Huge congrats to🌟DR🌟Bruno Gjeta,
@GrayCampLab
,
#TeamIHB
's FIRST PhD graduate, on your impressive thesis tracking cellular dynamics using
#organoid
models &
#SingleCell
tech! We're immensely proud of your achievement— a perfect close to 2023. Cheers to a successful future!🥳
What’s next for cell atlases? In our new perspective in
@sciencemagazine
, we envision that perturbing
#humanmodelsystems
at scale will help better understand cell types by charting human cell phenoscapes 🧵
The Organoid Phenotyping team is in the spotlight this week! 📣
These scientists develop high throughput methods for studying complex biological systems, such as
#Organoids
and patient-derived tissues.
#MeetTeamIHB
#OrganoidPhenotyping
In this interview from 2021, the father of
#Organoid
research
@HansClevers
talks about spotting the potential of
#Organoids
and why, for cystic fibrosis, they are now “integral” to the Dutch health system:
Perfect way to relax after work! We had a great time attending the recent science talk by
#pRED
leaders
@HansClevers
& Gijs van den Brink and
#TeamIHB
's lead
@BeumerJoep
! 💡They explored how incretins are secreted by the gut and their role in metabolic health and disease.
A couple of weeks ago, we shared a collaborative paper on retinal
#organoid
development. Today, we’re putting two of the
#TeamIHB
scientists involved,
@brangiov
and
@HarmelChristoph
from the Developmental Systems and Computational Biology team, in the spotlight ⬇️
As 2023 closes, we're feeling very grateful and we wish all our
#TeamIHB
family, colleagues and friends a joyous and restful holiday. This year has been filled with growth, hard work, collaboration and new ways of thinking. Excited for 2024- we're ready to tackle new challenges!
Some intriguing
#Organoid
research we're revisiting: mapping prohormone processing by proteases in human enteroendocrine cells (EECs) 🦠
EECs control physiological processes like appetite and insulin secretion. But their relative rarity makes these processes hard to assess ⬇️
💡
@HansClevers
sheds light on the potential of
#organoid
#biobanks
for the future of drug development & precision medicine. Yet significant work remains to validate this technology.
#TeamIHB
is thrilled to be part of this effort to advance this field. More
Roche’s Hans Clevers sees the organoid biobank the pharma's new institute is building as source of patient avatars for building diverse preclinical study populations, and generating data based on human tissue rather than animal models.
Great visit yesterday
@IHB_Research
yesterday and exciting discussion with
@TheLutolfLab
,
@AnnieMoisan_wl
and
@HansClevers
about strategic vision of pharmas on organoids and their use in drug discovery.
Now on my way to Cambridge to pack my long last remaining office.
Let's look back at some work carried out last year ——specifically, formulating a system for naming human multicellular models, including
#organoids
, assembloids and transplants.
Such as system could help with research and improve communication with
#scientists
and the public. ⬇️
Exciting opportunity to become
#TeamIHB
's Scientific Operations Director! Help us drive IHB’s positioning in the scientific community and ensure the operational efficiency of the institute and its integration within the Roche ecosystem. Pls RT & details at
The success of the
#TeamIHB
owes much to the wonderful and inspiring people who work in its labs. This week, we’re shining a spotlight on Research Fellow Mar Cervera Negueruela, who is part of a team focusing on
#microtechnology
Today, we’re tipping our hats to the Roche Cell and Organoid Banking team!
This group expands and cryo-preserves patient-derived
#organoids
in order to study
#disease
mechanisms, identify potential
#drug
targets and evaluate drug efficacy.
#TeamIHB
Full house at
#TeamIHB
for Prof Paola Arlotta's talk on human brain chimeroids as avatars to understand human interindividual variation in response to neurotoxic triggers!
@ArlottaLab
@harvardstemcell
ITB to IHB is more than just a name change.
Bringing biology, data analysis, computation, engineering and translation under one roof allows IHB to redefine research into human model systems such as
#organoids
.
Find out more about
#TeamIHB
here ➡️
This week, it’s the turn of the Applied Organoid Technologies team to hog the limelight!
This group is focused on advancing
#organoid
-based models for use in preclinical and
#clinical
assays, with the aim of enabling their adoption in
#drug
development ⬇️
It’s amazing what
#BioEngineering
can do! 🤓
Fun Fact: researchers have grown ‘sentient’ brain cells that have learned to play the 1970s video game, Pong.
This marks the first time these cells have interacted with an external environment ➡️
☀️
#TeamIHB
has your next weekend read! Check out this recent
@Dev_Cell
paper by
@JyotiRao_
,
@PourquieOlivier
& colleagues from
@HarvardMed
. They demo'd that signaling cues identified in mice can lead to efficient differentiation of brown adipose tissue in vitro from human PSCs.
Excited to share our paper in
@Dev_Cell
on tracking brown fat adipogenesis in mouse and using human pluripotent stem cells to recapitulate the development in vitro! Big thanks to all the contributors and collaborators in and out of the twitterverse
Jethro Lundie-Brown, Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and runner up Umut Kilik, University of Basel and IHB took home awards for Best Poster. Daniel Klimmeck, Senior Editor at EMBO, presented the prize, which was sponsored by EMBO.
🔥New
@CellStemCell
review by
@BeumerJoep
&
@HansClevers
describes 6 stem cell hallmarks that collectively enable long-term maintenance of adult tissues and highlights the diversity and complexity of
#ASC
strategies across tissues and species. OA 🔗 or 🧵👇
1. Adult stem cells (ASCs) compensate for cell loss during daily wear and tear. Evolution has created a variety of stem cell designs. In this review,
@HansClevers
and I define six hallmarks that are key enabling features of the basic function of ASCs, replacing lost tissue.
Great article covering what we currently know about adult stem cells.
#teamIHB
's
@BeumerJoep
and
#pRED
's
@HansClevers
reviewed their universal features that enable long-term tissue maintenance strategies and identified aspects yet to be understood. More at
🌟Adult stem cells: a biological universe still to be fully explored🌟
@BeumerJoep
&
@HansClevers
review how we biologically define these cells and chart new research avenues that could lead to new medical innovation. More at
#RocheInnovation
@IHB_Research
@mike_nikolaev
's ambitious goal is to elevate the complexity and accuracy of bioengineered tissues by incorporating essential cell types specific to each organ, replicating intricate processes of the tissue development and engineering complex organ physiology. ⬇️
Prof Schier
@schierlab
visited
#TeamIHB
and told us about his lab’s efforts in reconstructing cellular biographies during differentiation. We were intrigued by killifish's unusual embryogenesis!
@Biozentrum
@UniBasel_en
Spring is in full swing and
#TeamIHB
is flourishing with all our fresh new talent! 🪻🌷🌱Big welcome to Elena, Silvia, Manuel, Nadine, Yannick, Noella and Klara! Thrilled to have your expertise.
Happy New Year! We're ringing in 2024 with lots of great papers and an exciting Reviews series on the Hallmarks of Stem Cells! Check out the flagship Review from
@HansClevers
& Joep Beumer on Hallmarks of stemness in mammalian tissues. More to come!
What makes us human? Could the use of
#organoids
to create 3D “mini-brains” provide an answer to this?
Madeline Lancaster, a member of the IHB Scientific Advisory Board, pondered this and other tricky questions in a
@TEDx
Talk in 2015. Check it out 👉
Overall, it was a great opportunity to share what we’ve been up to and celebrate everyone’s hard work over a few drinks (and cupcakes!). It demonstrated how far
#IHB
has already travelled, and all the exciting
#research
that’s coming down the pipeline.⬇️
The Organoid Engineering team is paving the way for a world where we can accurately predict how organs will respond to treatments, medicine tailored to individuals and better drug testing.
Read more about Mike and the team here:
We are looking for an intern to join our team at
@IHB_Research
! This is not your average internship – it's an opportunity to immerse yourself in the bioengineering the most complex human organs-on-a-chip systems. Check more details here:
It’s time to introduce the Operations team! 📣
These are the people who make it happen in the background, supporting the operational set-up, strategic development and shared vision of
#TeamIHB
.
#MeetTeamIHB
#Organoids
Join our team and contribute to the development of engineered models of intestinal inflammation to study
#IBD
and derive novel therapeutic approaches.
This is a unique postdoc position hosted by the Immunology department within Roche pRED, in collaboration with the
At the Lab of the Future Congress, I had the pleasure of sharing the experience, opportunities, and challenges of establishing the organoid biobank at Roche's IHB. It was an excellent opportunity to learn more about digital innovation and automation.
#InstituteofHumanBiology
#IHB
Thank you,
@IHB_Research
, for sharing your latest research and the interesting discussions. It was a pleasure to have you at the
@biozentrum
, and we are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.
#Organoids
have already been used to model disorders such as microcephaly and autism, and now scientists are using them to study gene regulatory networks ⬇️
🎂Happy half-iversary
#TeamIHB
!🥳6 months ago we launched and our activities sky rocketed- all thanks to the energy and talent of our members. Where will we be at our 10 anniversary? IHB director Matthias Lütolf
@TheLutolfLab
shares his vision👇and more at
The success of IHB is dependent on the high-quality
#scientists
involved in its work. This week, we’re putting the spotlight on Manuela Jaklin, who supports
#TeamIHB
in establishing optimal workflows for the cell and
#organoid
biobank (RoCOB) ⬇️
#TeamIHB
had front row seats to
@Genentech
's Michelle Chen's talk on leveraging
#single_cell
omics to build and apply to in vitro human models. Fascinating to see her team's collaborative research in neurodegeneration and inflammatory bowel disease. Thanks
@Mbchen3
!
@BeumerJoep
and his team are currently focusing on the development of next-generation
#CRISPR
tools in
#organoids
, to engineer model systems that can be used to study healthy and diseased stem cells.
Learn more about the team here:
In addition, new molecular and cellular approaches, including organoid research, enable explorations of the factors that underlie human-specific traits. ⬇️
@HarmelChristoph
brings imaging and genomics data together to create multimodal digital representations of organoids. For his research, he designed a browsable app to visualise the development of retinal organoids through such representations: ⬇️
Thank you Lorenz Studer
@Studerl
for entrancing
#TeamIHB
with your talk on your lab's current work in directing neural fate, maturation and age in human pluripotent stem cells.
@MSKCancerCenter
What do leaders in their fields think about the present and future of
#organoids
?
Read key insights and watch presentations by Drs. Hans Clevers, Madeline Lancaster, Meritxell Huch, and more from this “Advances in Organoid Applications” Round Table.