This training course will explore the translation of science and nascent engineering programs into a well-structured product development program to address Reduction to Practice or proof of concept; Human factors engineering - what is it and why it matters; Design Control and Risk Control Roadmap for Development; Design for Manufacture and Assembly; Scale -up progression and manufacturing methods.

**A Must-Attend for Companies Embarking on Microfluidic Product Development**

Cultured organoids have emerged as important test beds for studying cell development and disease. Sub-micron sized extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, secreted by these organoids provide an ideal opportunity for assessing and continuously monitoring organoid status on the molecular level. I will describe the development of integrated lab-on-chip devices for real-time analysis of EVs produced in a custom 3D cerebral organoid tissue culture platform. This includes the detection of individual exosomes as well as their molecular biomarker cargo using single particle fluorescence and trapping-assisted nanopore sensing. I will also discuss the direct incorporation of this electro-optofluidic lab-on-chip within the tissue culture platform.

Ex vivo three-dimensional (3D) organotypic tissue-on-a-chip models have become essential tools in biomedical and preclinical research. These technologies provide a deeper understanding of complex human diseases, effectively addressing the limitations of traditional animal models. Tissue-on-a-chip systems have also significantly accelerated drug development by creating scalable, high-throughput platforms for efficiently evaluating the effectiveness of various drugs and compounds. In this seminar, Dr. Nikkhah will present his lab's multidisciplinary research, which integrates microfluidic technologies, advanced biomaterials, and single-cell analysis to engineer the next generation of physiologically relevant tissue-on-a-chip platforms for disease modeling and drug testing. The seminar will particularly emphasize their innovative work in designing complex diseased landscapes, such as the tumor microenvironment (TME), to study the early stages of cancer progression, particularly during invasion and metastasis. Additionally, this seminar will also discuss how disease-on-a-chip systems facilitate novel target and drug discoveries for advanced therapeutics.

Structural and transcriptional changes during early brain maturation follow fixed developmental programs defined by genetics. However, whether this is true for functional network activity remains unknown, primarily due to experimental inaccessibility of the initial stages of the living human brain. We developed cortical organoids that spontaneously display periodic and regular oscillatory network events that are dependent on glutamatergic and GABAergic signaling. These nested oscillations exhibit cross-frequency coupling, proposed to coordinate neuronal computation and communication. As evidence of potential network maturation, oscillatory activity subsequently transitioned to more spatiotemporally irregular patterns, capturing features observed in preterm human electroencephalography (EEG). These results show that the development of structured network activity in the human neocortex may follow stable genetic programming, even in the absence of external or subcortical inputs. Our approach provides novel opportunities for investigating and manipulating the role of network activity in the developing human cortex. Applications for neurodevelopmental disorders, brain evolution and space exploration will be discussed.

This presentation will describe production of sub-millimeter diameter, consistent size and shape, lung, kidney, and mammary organoids that have an inverted, apical-out geometry. These Organoids with Reversed Biopolarity (ORBs) are used in 384 well plates in a single-organoid-per-well format to test drugs and disease physiology. The airway ORBs are infected with high yields with multiple SARS-CoV-2 strains with Omicron variant showing highest viral replication and Delta giving the most inflammatory response. The ORBs also predict anti-viral drug efficacy correctly where conventional 2D cultures give false signals. Early-stage breast cancer progression model studies will also be discussed.

Patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTOs) are representative of the histopathology and physiological behavior of tumors. They are clinically relevant, tractable ex vivo models that can be quickly established from tumor biopsies and surgical samples. There is increasing interest in leveraging tumor organoids for drug development and personalized medicine applications for their ability to maintain principal features of the tumor they originate from, including drug response. PDTOs are particularly important to model rare tumors which often completely lack experimental models. We routinely establish organoids from a spectrum of tumors, including rare ovarian and peritoneal cancers (Phan et al, Communications Biology, 2019), benign tumors such as cutaneous neurofibromas (Nguyen et al, Cell Reports Methods, 2024), indolent bone cancers (Al Shihabi et al, Science Advances, 2022) and aggressive sarcomas (Al Shihabi et al, in press, 2024). We have developed a unique organoid screening platform that uses a modified geometry to seed or bioprint cells in a robust, high throughput and automation-compatible format that bypasses the need for any cell sorting, passaging or in vitro expansion. Our short screening timeline, with results available within one week from surgery, is compatible with therapeutic decision making. Overall, we have been able to identify unique drug responses to both fast and slow-growing cancers, including for tumors that are recalcitrant or impossible to grow as patient-derived xenografts. In a pilot study of PDTOs established from over 120 sarcomas, a family of rare tumors arising from bone or soft tissue, we demonstrated how PDTO drug screening provides sensitivity information that correlates with clinical features yielding actionable information for treatment guidance (Al Shihabi et al, in press, 2024). Importantly, sarcoma organoid responses complemented genetic sequencing and mirrored patient outcomes, leading to the launch of a clinical trial to test PDTO use in osteosarcoma (An Organoid-based Functional Precision Medicine Trial in Osteosarcoma: PREMOST, NCT06064682).

Single and multi-organ microphysiologic systems (MPS) can be used to detect secondary drug toxicities stemming from drug metabolites. Here we describe how to design and prototype such systems to replicate key aspects of the human body that influence the concentration of drug metabolites within the system. Using 3D printing we have prototyped and tested several microfluidic MPS that operate with liver and heart tissues and that can recirculate near-physiological amounts of cell culture medium. We have also developed several devices that recirculate small amounts of cell culture medium in a way that makes it feasible to culture mechano-sensitive cells such as HUVEC or GI tract epithelial cells within the system. The talk given here is a summary of our efforts in this area.

Somatic tissues derived from human stem cells offer significant advantages over animal models for drug studies and disease modeling. For over 20 years, my lab has been addressing the neuropharmacological and neurophysiological properties of human stem cell derived neurons in 2D and, more recently, in 3D culture. This presentation will cover the challenges and advantages in combining stem cell created neuroglial cells, maintained in ultra-long-term culture, with multi-electrode array technology, to advance the discovery of novel antiseizure agents for epilepsy. Specifically, I will present recent data demonstrating that human neuroglia cell networks are able to detect the antiseizure properties of diverse antiepileptic drugs with high sensitivity, specificity and reliability. I will also present one of our recent studies showing that fenamates, a well-established class of NSAID, that are also subunit-selective potentiators of the GABAA receptor (the major inhibitory receptor in the brain) have potent antiseizure properties. These observations provide new evidence for a novel therapeutic approach to the treatment of epilepsy, and we are exploring these well-established NSAIDs for drug repurposing. Overall, our data, and that emerging from other labs, demonstrate the power of stem cell derived neural circuits, supported by glia to identify new and novel agents for complex, difficult-to-treat, neuropsychiatric disorders.