THE COTTLE GROUP

Primary human hepatocytes are the standard in vitro model system for drug toxicity, liver biology, and liver disease studies. When cultured in 2D as a monolayer, hepatocytes undergo dedifferentiation and lose functionality within days, hampering long-term studies on liver functionality. The Cottle Group is developing a novel functionalized scaffold-based 3D culture system for primary human hepatocytes that enables long-term maintenance of liver-specific functionalities. Our research team is comparing our scaffold-based system to a spheroid culture system for the duration of time that each system could retain cell viability, hepatocyte functions, and cellular morphology. We are optimizing our scaffold system to limit binding of drugs to the scaffold and enhance interactions between the drug molecule and cells, which are critical for accuracy of assays and reproducibility.