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Organoid Innovation Center

Modular, automated 3D cell culture and image analysis lab enables customers to streamline and scale organoid interrogation, advancing drug discovery research

Automated 3D cell culture and image analysis lab streamlines and scales complex biology research

The new Organoid Innovation Center at Molecular Devices combines cutting-edge technologies with novel 3D biology methods to address key challenges of scaling complex 3D biology.

The collaborative space brings customers and researchers into the lab to test automated workflows for organoid culturing and screening, with guidance from in-house scientists.

An end-to-end solution standardizes the organoid development process with cell culture, treatment, and incubation, through to imaging, analysis, and data processing, delivering consistent, unbiased, and biologically-relevant results at scale.

Quickly adopt innovative, 3D biological methods and technologies for drug discovery

The center expands beyond imaging to demonstrate a fully-integrated solution that addresses the challenges associated with every step in the sample prep-to-report pipeline for assays performed on complex 3D biological models.

The Organoid Innovation Center showcases cutting-edge instruments that work harmoniously together for autonomous, long-term, live cell 2D and 3D cell culture growth and monitoring with intelligent label-free imaging. This integrated workflow provides quality control alerts and readiness, 3D organoid screening, and deep learning image analysis that reveals hidden patterns other technologies miss.

 

Organoid screening workcell at Molecular Devices Organoid Innovation Center

"While organoids hold great promise to transform drug development, precision medicine, and ultimately, transplantation-based therapies for end-stage diseases, a number of major hurdles need to be overcome to realize the full potential of organoid medicine. Our recently established CuSTOM Accelerator Lab aims to solve these issues by developing fully automated high-throughput workflows for improved scalability, reproducibility of organoid production and novel organoid-based drug screening platforms. Combining CuSTOM’s expertise with the cutting-edge imaging technologies and solutions from Molecular Devices will be essential for achieving these goals. CuSTOM’s innovative approach aligns well with the focus of Molecular Devices’ Organoid Innovation Center for advancing biological imaging and analytical methods for real-world impact, and we look forward to working together to further advance a versatile organoid medicine."

— Magdalena Kasendra, Ph.D.
Director of research and development at CuSTOM
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See the power and flexibility of an automated and customizable high-throughput screening solution

With intuitive scheduling software researchers can control the 3D workflow remotely, tracking the cell journey from single cell to differentiated organoid, along the way. Cell culture and incubation is streamlined with an automated incubator and collaborative robot that maintains culture consistency. Media exchange for culture maintenance is standardized and streamlined with automated liquid handling, minimizing manual intervention. 3D model development can be monitored over time with label-free imaging to assess assay readiness – and with real-time feedback, scheduling of automated compound addition and treatment is standardized.

Organoid Innovation Center Workflow
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Organoid Screening Workflow

  • Step 1) 2d Pre-culture – Organoids are pre-cultured from iPSC-derived or primary cells (intestine, lung, or brain) 
  • Step 2) Developing 3D Organoids – Cells are transferred to 24-well plates then placed in an incubator to promote cell growth and differentiation into specific tissue in 3D
  • Step 3) Organoid Culture – Organoid culture process require multiple steps with different media exchanges
  • Step 4) Monitor organoid growth & development – Organoid are monitored and characterized for complex analysis of tissue structure and differentiation
  • Step 5) Confocal imaging and 3D analysis – The visualization and characterization of multiple quantitative descriptors used for studying disease phenotypes and compound effects
  • Our new ImageXpress Confocal HT.ai High-Content Imaging system is designed for 3D imaging. This system offers eight high-powered laser excitation channels and automated water immersion objectives that boosts signal and assay sensitivity without sacrificing speed.  Spinning disk confocal technology with five pinhole geometry options reduces haze from out of focus light for deeper organoid penetration and improved axial resolution. For analysis of complex 3D biology, IN Carta Image Analysis Software provides a streamlined workflow with powerful deep-learning based segmentation, machine learning-based classification, and 3D volumetric analysis.

Complete solutions for a fully integrated lab automation workflow

 

Our lab automation solutions include scientists and engineers who can customize our instruments, as well as automate entire workflows to meet the specific needs of your assay, method, or protocol. From incubators, liquid handlers, and robotics to customized software and hardware—and with over 35 years of experience in the life science industry—you can count on us to deliver quality products and provide worldwide support.

Sale is subject to our Custom Product Purchase Terms available at www.moleculardevices.com/custom-products-purchase-terms

 

Lung organoid cell image gallery

image-analysis-of-organoid
lung-organoids
Neurons in 1536 well
Nuclei using phalloidin stain
DNA damage overlay in U2OS cells
 

Applications and assays

The Organoid Innovation Center builds on Molecular Devices 35 years of experience delivering high-performance life science technology to customers for improved drug development, biotechnology research, and clone screening workflows.

Learn more about our industry leading 3D biology and automated high-content imaging applications:

  • 3D Biology Articles

    3D Biology Articles

    Curated 3D biology articles from Molecular Devices subject matter experts, featured in trade publications like BioTechniques and Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.

    3D Cancer Cell Research

    3D Cancer Cell Research

    Cancer involves changes which enable cells to grow and divide without respect to normal limits, to invade and destroy adjacent tissues, and ultimately to metastasize to distant sites in the body. Cancer spheroids mimic tumor behavior far more effectively than standard 2D cell cultures. Such 3D spheroid models are being successfully used in screening environments for identifying potential cancer therapeutics.

    Cancer researchers need tools that enable them to more easily study the complex and often poorly understood interactions between cancerous cells and their environment, and to identify points of therapeutic intervention.

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  • 3D Cell Models

    3d Cell Models

    3D cell cultures offer the advantage of closely recapitulating aspects of human tissues including the architecture, cell organization, cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, and more physiologically-relevant diffusion characteristics. Utilization of 3D cellular assays adds value to research and screening campaigns, spanning the translational gap between 2D cell cultures and whole-animal models. By reproducing important parameters of the in vivo environment, 3D models can provide unique insight into the behavior of stem cells and developing tissues in vitro.

    Read More 

    Cell Painting

    Cell Painting

    Cell Painting is a high-content, multiplexed image-based assay used for cytological profiling. In a Cell Painting assay, up to six fluorescent dyes are used to label different components of the cell including the nucleus, the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, cytoskeleton, the Golgi apparatus, and RNA. The goal is to “paint” as much of the cell as possible to capture a representative image of the whole cell.

    Learn More 

  • Customer Breakthrough

    Revolutionizing early drug discovery

    Bioneer uses the ImageXpress Micro Confocal for high-throughput imaging of 3D disease models

    Revolutionizing early drug discovery for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative disease modelling: High content imaging of 3D disease models

    Learn more  

    Disease Modeling

    Disease Modeling

    In this webinar, in collaboration with MIMETAS, we present some of the latest developments in integrating organoid protocols with organ-on-a-chip technology, as well as advancements in the high-content imaging technologies that are enabling these advanced 3D applications. We show how a range of tissue models comprising complex co-cultures can be formed in a perfused system, using state-of-the-art stem cell and organoid protocols, and how such models can then be screened and analyzed within a single, integrated interface to dramatically reduce time to discovery.

  • Moving from 2D to 3D Cell Culture

    Moving from 2D to 3D Cell Culture

    There has been a recent shift toward using 3D cell models in drug discovery and disease modeling, as numerous studies show they better mimic the in vivo environment and provide more physiologically-relevant data than 2D models.

    Organoids

    Organoids

    Organoids are three-dimensional (3D) multi-cellular microtissues that are designed to closely mimic the complex structure and functionality of human organs. Organoids typically consist of a co-culture of cells which demonstrate a high order of self-assembly to allow for an even better representation of complex in vivo cell responses and interactions, as compared to traditional 2D cell cultures.

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  • Stem Cell Research

    Stem Cell Research

    Pluripotent stem cells can be used for studies in developmental biology or differentiated as a source for organ-specific cells and used for live or fixed cell-based assays on slides or in multi-well plates. The ImageXpress system has utility in all parts of the stem cell researcher’s workflow, from tracking differentiation, to quality control, to measuring functionality of specific cell types.

    Learn more 

    Toxicity Screening

    Toxicity Screening

    Organoid models have increasingly gained popularity in biologic research and screening to recapitulate complexity of real tissues. To model the in vivo human lungs, we have cultured primary human lung epithelial cells under conditions that promote the formation of 3D structures recapitulating the morphological and functional characteristics of the airway.

    Download scientific poster

Resources for Organoid Innovation Center

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Videos & Webinars

Automated Culture and High-Content Imaging of 3D Lung

ISSCR 2021 Innovation Showcase: Automated Culture and High-Content Imaging of 3D Lung and Cardiac

Organoid Innovation Center Walkthrough

Organoid Innovation Center Walkthrough

Automated organoid assays with 3D imaging

Disease modeling in the 21st century: Automated organoid assays with 3D imaging

organ-on-a-chip systems for drug discovery and disease modelling

High-throughput, organoid-derived organ-on-a-chip systems for drug discovery and disease modelling

Transitioning high-content assays to 3D

Transitioning high-content assays to 3D: Scientific opportunities and imaging challenges

3D Cell Models

Getting started with imaging 3D cell models – all you need to know

Developing High Throughput Organ on a Chip Tissue

Developing high-throughput organ-on-a-chip tissue models for drug discovery using high-content imaging

Physiologically-relevant tissue models using a high-throughput Organ-on-a-Chip platform

Physiologically-Relevant Tissue Models Using a High-Throughput Organ-on-a-Chip Platform

How can we help advance your next big discovery?

We are collaborating with customers, research groups and industry-leading vendors to continue developing solutions and new methods for screening 3D biology. We invite you to join our collaboration and visualize your 3D workflow in action with our live streamed demonstrations.

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