The researchers from Trento and Cardiff are working experimentally on the development of the hybrid biological system using an artificial structure made of soft matter (materials that are easily deformable and with physical characteristics that are highly dependent on temperature, pressure and other external influences). Meanwhile, the ZHAW team headed up by Ruedi Füchslin is creating models and simulations in parallel to the experiments with the aim of providing insights into how such hybrid tissue functions. “The objective is to develop a robust hybrid organoid that has the look and feel of natural tissue from a cellular perspective,” says project manager Ruedi Füchslin, who heads the Applied Complex Systems Science research group based within the ZHAW Institute of Applied Mathematics and Physics (IAMP). The goal, however, is to enable the production of hybrid tissue under laboratory conditions using a standard process. “Through our modelling, we want to make its properties, i.e. its chemical dynamics and behaviour, predictable, thus making the system more robust,” stresses Füchslin.

In a later stage, the organoid is to be used in the field of medical research to examine human cells and to develop and test therapies. Alongside the immediate research results, the project also aims to explore ways of optimising and standardising the interaction between modelling and experiments. The modelling of the ZHAW researchers and the experiments of the partner research groups are designed to complement one another, ideally resulting in improved processes and ultimately best-practice models that can also be used in subsequent projects. “Ideally, we will reach a stage where our models and experiments are a source of mutual inspiration,” says Ruedi Füchslin in explaining one of the ideas behind the EU project’s methodology.