Insider Insights with Dr. Vicky Marsh Durban

As an undergraduate and doctoral candidate, Vicky studied intestinal biology. She used animal models for research because they were the only relevant models available at the time.

When organoid culture entered the scene, it changed everything for her lab—and for her. Since then, she's been all in on pushing this innovative field forward and hasn't looked back.

In this post from our Insider Insights series—where experts share both quick reactions and deep reflections on what it’ll take to prepare life scientists for what’s next—Vicky talks us through how assay-ready organoids are tackling the biggest challenges today’s researchers face working with complex human-relevant models.

Inquiring minds want to know:

How have you seen the development of validated and assay-ready human-relevant models impact or improve the everyday lives of our customers?

Quick reaction: You can have an idea on Friday and have the data you need by the end of next week.

Deep reflection: Two things make a customer's eyes light up when they hear about our 3D Ready Organoids: the convenience of their assay readiness and the sheer number of organoids that we can provide.

If a researcher is sitting at their desk on a Friday, thinking of an experiment they want to tackle, they can take a vial of 3D Ready Organoids out of the freezer, put them on a plate, and start an experiment on Monday. By the following Friday, they’ve got data. This realization that you don't need to do any subculture or anything has opened a world of possibilities.

And it’s fascinating to see researchers realize how many organoids are in a vial or how many we can produce in a batch. The surprise is palpable. They're like, "Hold on a minute. You can give me 100,000 organoids in a vial? Or a batch of millions?" You can see it ticking through their head, realizing they can do a lot of experiments without waiting a long period of time to get started. They don't need to limit themselves because they can't produce enough organoids. They get to a point where they discover nothing’s holding them back from their scientific endeavors. They can do as many experiments as they’d like because producing the models is no longer a limiting factor.

Why do you find this exciting?

Quick reaction: I love empowering scientists to be scientists, to be able to try the fun and exploratory experiments that might previously have been out of their reach.

Deep reflection: I’m energized seeing customers dream up new experiments they haven't even thought of doing before with organoids. They suddenly realize they have enough material to just give it a go without much to lose because they haven't spent months growing the organoids. They can try those off-the-wall, wacky experiments that would have been too much of an investment and commitment before. For me, this is real research, driving the next generation of innovation and scientific breakthroughs using organoids.

What trends or customer feedback have driven innovation in this area?

Quick reaction: Our customers want reliable, standardized organoids at scale. They want to do the value-add work, like running the assay or the screen, where they can really apply their scientific intellect.

Deep reflection: Customers tell us they don’t want to spend their time growing organoids themselves. They want to be doing the value-add work, like running the assay or the screen, where they can really apply their scientific intellect. Enabling this has been a major driver for us; providing customers with the number of organoids they need.

There's also been a wake-up call within the scientific research community about the reproducibility crisis and the need for standardization. The importance of replicating results across individuals and labs has driven us to generate large batches of highly reproducible organoids that can be used for various experiments, ensuring consistent results.

What common research challenges do customers face now, and how can validated and assay-ready human-relevant models open new opportunities?

Quick reaction: Forward momentum will be all about accessibility and lowering the bar to entry for complex model systems, removing the need for extensive training to handle and use these models.

Deep reflection: Recently, there's been significant awareness and attention around 2D models alone being insufficient for a full data package. Pressure from various sources—funding agencies, peer reviewers, and regulators—means that researchers are now being asked to use more human-relevant model systems—like 3D models, organ-on-chip models, and multi-tissue models—to validate their results. This can be daunting if they've never worked with these systems before.

Our focus is all about increasing accessibility and lowering the bar to entry by making model systems as simple as possible to use, removing the need for extensive training to handle and use them. Diving deeper into complex biology relies on having well-characterized, validated models that can be used across various applications—from co-culture assays to even more sophisticated 3D models.

As challenges to use organoids become fewer—thereby increasing in adoption—there will be an even greater need for standardization of models—a monstrous but worthy feat that would be beneficial for industry to lead. This has gained attention, particularly from the FDA, which is driving for validation of complex models for a specific context-of-use. It's about having specific models for defined applications to answer specific questions. Particularly in the toxicity testing space, this is starting to grow, with standard go-to assays that are well understood and can support applications to the FDA for new drugs or to help determine which patients should receive—or not receive—certain drugs. This standardization is really important for customers as they start gravitating—or in some cases, are nudged—more toward using complex models.

In a world where validated and assay-ready human-relevant models reach their full potential, what do you envision happens next?

Quick reaction: Interdisciplinary collaboration will continue to drive the paradigm shift toward human-relevant 3D models and push the boundaries of what's possible, making tissue models more relevant and impactful than we might ever have the capacity to imagine.

Deep reflection: I envision a future where the continual development of new model systems within academia drives true innovation. This is where all these new model systems start, and there's a growing demand for more complex systems. It's amazing to see how different engineering innovations around the shape and structure of human tissues drive different cell behaviors. This is all coming together—from engineering the physical microenvironment, engineering the cells themselves, producing and adding different cell types, and adding different physical forces. The space is becoming more exciting as tissue models become more and more relevant, and this improvement will continue.

I’m also intrigued by how various scientific and technical disciplines are getting involved in this space. Tissue engineers and materials scientists are developing new cell scaffolds, culture surfaces, and physical structures to support cells in a tissue-mimicking manner. Chemical, process, and automation engineers are working on adding fluid flow to mimic movement of biological fluids in tissues, and are finding ways to effectively scale the production of models to enable large batches with high reproducibility and reduced costs. This interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for modeling human tissues and diseases and industrializing these model systems. It's becoming a fascinating space where different science and technology disciplines converge to push the boundaries of what's possible.

Inspired by what you’ve read? Learn more about getting 3D Ready here.

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