OrganVision, a technology proposal to image organoids real-time label-free, has been funded 3.7 million Euros by Horizon 2020 under the prestigious FET Open RIA program. The project comprises of 8 partners spread across 5 cities in 4 nations: Norway (Tromsø), Germany (Hamburg, Jena), Italy (Milan), and Spain (Barcelona).
OrganVision envisions to shift the paradigm for organoids from disease or drug-screening models to observable tissue micro-bio-environment for unravelling key physiological and pathological processes in humans. We aspire to enable the exploitation of the most important feature of organoids – life, health, disease, and death unfolding in real-time at sub-cellular and inter-cellular scales in cells and tissues, respectively. Our ambition is to (a) overcome the central obstacle that prevents realization of the vision, namely lack of real-time high-resolution label-free imaging technology suitable for organoids, and (b) create new opportunities for organoid research and exploit them.
The team of OrganVision opines that independent efforts in the fields of microscopy, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and life sciences contributes incremental improvement at best, whereas the field is in need of a leap in the technology. OrganVision cuts across individual fields of microscopy, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and medical science, brings them to a nexus of unprecedented possibilities and changes the course of organoids research forever. It is not just interdisciplinary, it also brings together diverse institutions: two academic universities, one research institute, two university hospitals and two small and medium enterprises (SMEs), for fulfilling the need of development and engagement on all the relevant fronts.
The eight partners are
- Krishna Agarwal (UiT The Arctic university of Norway, Tromsø, coordinator, computational microscopy)
She is project leader for the nanoRIP project that is associated with the Centre for Digital Life Norway. See the project web page - Dilip Prasad (UiT, Tromsø, artificial intelligence)
- Åsa Birna Birgisdottir (the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN), Tromsø, cardiovascular biology)
- Florian Weinberger (The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, engineered heart tissues)
- Aisada Koenig (JenLab, Jena, microscope prototyping)
- Matteo Bregonzio (3rdPlace, Milan, big data)
- Dipanjan Bhattacharya (IFOM the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milan, biotechnology)
- Marti Duocastella (the University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, ultrafast microscopy)
Author
Krishna Agarwal
E-mail: krishna.agarwal@uit.no