Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Immune-Mediated Diseases“In vitro test systems as alternative to animal testing” – 4D-Workshop of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Immune-Mediated Diseases CIMD young scientists program
On March 18, 2022, the workshop “In vitro test systems as alternative to animal testing” was conducted as part of the 4D workshop series of the Fraunhofer CIMD young scientists program.
The workshop was organized and performed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC. It focused on topics like tissue engineering, preclinical test systems, and bioanalytical tools. The participants consisted of employees from the core institutes of the research cluster (Fraunhofer ITMP, ITEM and IZI) as well as from other Fraunhofer institutes (Fraunhofer IGB, IAP, IPA, IGD and IKTS).
The workshop was opened by Özlem Elbert, Assistant, Fraunhofer ISC, with a short interactive survey. Afterwards, PD Dr. Marco Metzger, Head of the Fraunhofer Translational Center Regenerative Therapies, gave the participants a brief introduction to tissue engineering. Dr. Florian Groeber-Becker, Head of In Vitro Test Systems at the Fraunhofer Translational Center Regenerative Therapies, then went into more detail about the basics of tissue engineering. In his subsequent presentation about in vitro test systems, he explained their advantages and challenges and went into more detail about epithelial tissue models in particular.
After a short coffee break, Part II of the session "In Vitro Test Systems" followed, in which Christina Popp, Project Manager at Fraunhofer ISC, and Rinu Sivarajan, PhD student at the University Hospital Würzburg, presented respiratory models in more detail.
After the lunch break, Dr. Christina Fey, Project Manager of Intestinal Tissue Engineering at Fraunhofer ISC, addressed organoids and 3D tissue models in her talk, focusing in particular on intestinal models. After a short coffee break, Dr. Antje Appelt-Menzel, Project Manager of In Vitro Test Systems at the Fraunhofer Translational Center Regenerative Therapies, gave an introduction to human induced pluripotent stem cells and their applications.
The workshop day was rounded off by Dr. Christian Lotz, Deputy Head of In Vitro Test Systems at the Fraunhofer Translational Center Regenerative Therapies, with his presentation on regulatory requirements and validation of tissue models.
The research cluster would like to thank all speakers for the exciting impulses and the participants for their active participation.