Automation of Organoid Cultures: Current Protocols and Applications

Abstract

Organoids are three-dimensional, functional structures that mimic in vivo organs. They offer new opportunities for the modeling of cancer and infectious and rare hereditary diseases. Furthermore, the advent of organoid biobanks opens new avenues for drug screening in a personalized fashion and holds much promise for personalized regenerative medicine. Thus, there is a need for reproducible, large-scale organoid generation with minimal variability, making manual approaches impracticable. Here, we review the current use of automation in organoid culture and analysis, using cerebral and retinal organoids as illustrations of current applications. An increased demand for automated organoid platforms is anticipated.

Keywords: automation; nervous system; organoid; retina; stem cell.