TOP-GUT · Training for Organoids modelling Physiology and Pathology in the human gastrointestinal tract

In the aging society, disease burden, such as degenerative diseases and cancer are rising while drug development successes are limited, due to high drug failure rates in the transition from animal experimentation to human patients. This demands re-thinking of the currently used models. Advances in stem cell biology and microfluidics have created new human organ models. These models are neither fully understood, nor fully mimicking the complexity of the tissue. With this new ability to build human stem cell-based models, we have a responsibility to drive these models to implementation – aiming to replace animal experimentation and provide next generation patient avatars for precision medicine. TOP-GUT combines cutting-edge basic and translational science with an outstanding program of education to unleash the full potential of new human organ models, specifically patient-derived organoids and organ-on-chip devices. TOP-GUT will focus on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which is the bodies second largest interface with the environment. It is medically highly relevant not only as a major site of cancer development, as target of infectious agents, and as site of inflammatory diseases, but also as one of the major organs for drug uptake and relevance in toxicology. TOP-GUT aims to significantly contribute to our understanding of the current GI models, establish new tools and protocols for more complex GI models, and advance the use of GI models for personalised medicine. In addition, TOP-GUT will address ethical and legal issues to foster acceptance and implementation of the GI models. TOP-GUT will build a solid European network to cooperate, standardize and push GI models into applications, bringing together academia and industry. Together, TOP-GUT educates the next generation of researchers to become new leaders in the field and to drive the implementation of new stem cell based human models to replace animal experimentation in academia and industry.