As the coronavirus epidemic prompts cancellations of scientific meetings around the world and shifts to virtual settings, we have been working on alternative methods to keep you informed of advances in 3D cell-based assay technology, new approaches for experimental program design, and the latest data produced using our drug discovery and safety platforms.  In this blog, our CEO Jan Lichtenberg describes InSphero's plan B:  a new webinar series starting with our virtual SOT 2020 sessions.

Our liver team was just putting the finishing touches on their presentations and posters when we heard that SOT 2020 was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. While we applaud the decision of SOT leadership to put the health and safety of members first and join public health efforts to slow the community spread of this new virus, we can't help but be disappointed.

Like you, we rely on SOT and other scientific meetings to learn and share the science and technologies that help drive biomedical research forward. Rather than wait until 2021, we will be hosting a series of scientific webinars to share our latest breakthroughs with you – and learn more about the challenges you face when applying 3D cell technologies in drug discovery and safety testing.

We'll kick this online webinar program off next week, starting with two webinars on topics we planned to present in Anaheim. We invite you to register for our free “virtual SOT” webinars and together let's keep the conversation going.

Virtual SOT 2020 Webinar Series

Topic:  NAFLD & NASH Discovery
Time: Wednesday, March 18, 4 PM CET
Title: Redefining NASH Drug Discovery: A New Approach to Complex Disease Modeling.

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a progressive disease that takes years to develop in humans and involves an intricate interplay of multiple liver cell types, impaired liver functionality, and disrupted signaling. Senior Application Scientist Dr. Sue Grepper, who has written numerous blogs and co-authored articles about NAFLD and NASH, will provide an overview of our versatile platform for screening/testing NASH therapies using pathophysiologically relevant, disease-tunable 3D in vitro human models, and present the latest data generated using our 3D InSight™ Human Liver NASH model.

Virtual Poster: Establishment of a 3D Human NASH Model for High-throughput Drug Efficacy Testing. (You will be able to request this poster after the webinar.)

Topic:  Investigative Toxicology
Time: Thursday, March 19, 4 PM CET
Title: Transforming Mechanistic Toxicology with 3D Human Liver Microtissues.

InSphero CSO and Toxicology Professor Armin Wolf and Liver Toxicology Team Leader Dr. Monika Kijanska will introduce a framework for mechanistic toxicology investigations, based on a suite of causality assays developed for our 3D InSight™ Liver Toxicology Platform. Armin and Monika will discuss how to design experimental programs that help validate relationships between events that trigger toxic responses and identify adverse outcome pathways implicated in drug induced liver injury, and present example data generated using our liver toxicology platform

Virtual Poster: Novel 3D Liver Microtissue Reactivity Assay Reveals Causal Link between Glutathione Status and Cytotoxicity. (This poster will be available for download after the webinar.)

Coming Soon Near You with our Webinars

Please check our InSphero Live Webinars Schedule to view a complete list of upcoming webinars on topics such as DILI screening, high content imaging and analysis, and a novel platform for monitoring insulin release dynamics. If you have any suggestions or special requests, please contact our team.  Looking forward to hearing your from you!

Discover what you can do with 3D InSight™

 

 

Watch this video to learn how we apply our scalable Akura™ technology and 10 years of experience in perfecting 3D in vitro models to develop discovery platforms for metabolic diseases and oncology.