BIH Translation Hub Lecture | Multi Omics | Jeffrey Beekman

15 October 2020
Lecture 2: "Primary Epithelial Cell Models for Cystic Fibrosis Studies"

New model systems enable easy culturing of patient cells in the lab for functional studies, which can be highly useful for drug development and personalized medicine. For instance, intestinal and airway organoid culture methods can be used to study cystic fibrosis (CF), a rare monogenic disease that is caused by aberrant function of an ion channel termed CFTR. These new organoid methodologies are particularly interesting as they resemble the native tissue organization, can be grown in large quantities and enable storage in biobanks.

In the second BIH Multi-Omics Lecture on 15 October 2020, Jeffrey Beekman, Full Professor at the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht, who pioneered the use of intestinal and airway organoid culture methods to study CF, will discuss how current therapies for CF that aim to restore CFTR function are revolutionizing the treatment of CF, causing unprecedented effects in people with CF. The presentation will provide an example for the use of patient-derived cell systems for studies of rare, genetic disease in the context of basic science, drug development, individual disease development and treatment thereof.