EUROoCS2024 in Milan, Italy

Left to right: Joana Rocha Pereira (KUL), My Hedhammar (KTH), Jana van Dycke (KUL)

Following the completion of work packages 3 (DEFEND) and 4 (SPREAD) in Spring earlier this year, our consortium members have been busy attending various conferences all over Europe. Last week, between the 3rd to 5th of July 2024, several of our consortium members attended the EUROoCS annual meeting in Milan, Italy. At this conference, our researchers My Hedhammar (KTH University), Jana van Dycke (KU Leuven), and Joana Rocha Pereira (KU Leuven) presented their posters.

Recap of poster

At the conference, My Hedhammar presented a poster titled “FN-silk as ECM-mimic for the construction of physiologically relevant models of barrier tissue”. This poster focused on showcasing the ability of FN-silk, a recombinant functionalized silk protein, in mimicking the extracellular matrix and supporting cells to grow in 3D models. Hence, replicating the natural tissue of the human body. FN-silk in the context of physiologically relevant models of the human barrier tissue for drug development.

Also present at the conference are Jana van Dycke and Joana Rocha Pereira, who presented the poster “Human intestinal enteroids: the gateway to novel antivirals targeting enteric viruses and the host immune response”. Human norovirus (HuNoV) is the main cause of viral gastroenteritis causing over 200,000 deaths every year, and currently there is no approved treatment or vaccine. Before human intestinal enteroids (HIEs), the cultivation of enteric viruses such as HuNoV was at large not possible, which majorly hampered the development of therapeutics. This poster highlights HIE-based methods to study HuNoV replication and to identify anti-norovirus compounds.

“Attending EurooCS 2024 in Milan was a valuable experience. During the conference we heard experts in organs-on-chip technology talk about the recent advancements and future directions. Many different topics were covered, including microfluidics and tissue engineering, highlighting the potential of this technology in medical research and drug testing.” – Jana van Dycke

Contributions to the project

Within the GUTVIBRATIONS project, Jana and Joana are participants of the work packages 5 (INFECT) and 6 (TREAT). Within these work packages, we will be infecting the gut mucosa model and the BBB-brain model and conduct antiviral testing against viruses that interact with the gut-brain axis. Finally, in work package 7 (STACK), in which My is a participant of, we will be assembling the complex human gut-brain axis OoC.