Dr. Ammar AZIOUNE
Director of the National Biotechnology Research Centre (C.R.Bt) Constantine
09h00 – 10h30
- Topic: “Intelligent Cell Culture: A Powerful Tool for Pharmaceutical R&D
- The current trend in pharmaceutical R&D is towards automation and increased data acquisition rates. The aim is to test a greater number of molecules and experimental contexts, but also to refine and cross-reference analyses. In this context, screening on cells in culture is increasingly favoured. However, they come up against a major problem: cells are complex objects which, on a classic culture substrate (petri dishes and microplates), often have a large phenotypic variability (size, shape, organisation of compartments, sensitivity to drugs, etc.). The classical solution is to increase the number of cells and parameters analysed and then to use sophisticated software to identify the cells and their components (segmentation) and to normalise the measurements.
In contrast, cells in a tissue context have a very stereotyped shape and internal organisation, which is ensured by a well-defined distribution of adhesions of the cell to its neighbours on the one hand, and to the extracellular matrix on the other. Unfortunately, this stereotyped organisation is lost in classical culture and no numerical analysis can restore it.
The aim of our presentation will be to introduce the audience to the field of cell culture, its advantages and disadvantages on the one hand, and on the other hand to propose new technologies called “Smart Cell Culture” which can ensure that each individual cell has a shape, size and stereotyped organisation very close to the tissue context. These technologies will enable us to obtain real “Organs on a Chip” for the research and development of new methods applied to cell therapy, regenerative medicine, toxicology and other biotechnological applications.
