3DBioNet: an integrated technological platform for 3D micro-tissues

也许你已经在显微镜下见过细胞了？植物、动物和人类都是由细胞构成的。大约一个世纪以来，科学家们一直在平坦的透明表面（玻璃或塑料）上培养细胞。在平面上生长细胞非常方便。事实上，它是如此成功，以至于我们对细胞核（包含遗传信息）和线粒体（提供能量）等细胞成分的许多了解都来自于此类实验；这也包括药物的发现和潜在毒性的测试。然而，在真实的生物体中，细胞并不附着在平面上。相反，它们与三维环境相互作用，包括其他细胞以及细胞分泌的因子。科学家们现在越来越意识到在平面上生长细胞和在3D中生长细胞之间的区别的重要性：它改变了细胞的形状，它们如何相互交流，以及它们如何对环境的变化做出反应。直到最近，动物实验一直是在平面上培养细胞的主要替代方法。虽然动物实验对我们理解生物学和发现新药至关重要，但它们并不能完美地模仿人类生物学，出于道德原因，减少动物实验的数量也是可取的。在过去的十年里，科学家们已经开始在3D中培养细胞，从而产生微型组织，通常是从干细胞开始的。这些由人源性细胞构成的微组织类似于人体组织。但是，就像从2D打印到3D打印需要新材料、新软件、新想法和新程序一样，从2D细胞培养到3D细胞培养需要在方法、材料和技术上进行大量创新，科学家们使用这些创新来设计、执行、分析和解释他们的实验。3DbioNet网络的目的是汇集来自学术界和工业界许多不同学科的科学家的技能，以确定绊脚石，并帮助建立这种新的生物学方法。

Maybe you have already seen cells under a microscope? Plants, animals and humans are made of cells. For approximately a century, scientists have routinely grown cells on flat transparent surfaces (glass or plastic). Growing cells on flat surfaces is very convenient. In fact, it has been so successful that a lot of what we know about cell components such as the nucleus (which contains the genetic information) and mitonchodria (which provides energy) comes from such experiments; this also includes discovery of drugs and tests of their potential toxicity. However, in real living organisms cells are not attached to a flat surface. Instead, they interact with their three dimensional environment which includes other cells as well as factors secreted by cells. Scientists now realize more and more the importance of this difference between growing cells on a flat surface or growing them in 3D: it modifies their shape, how they communicate with each others and how they respond to changes in their environment. Until recently, animal experiments have been the main alternative to cells grown on flat surfaces. Whilst animal experiments remain essential to our understanding of biology and to the discovery of new drugs, they do not perfectly mimic human biology and it is also desirable to reduce their number for ethical reasons.In the last decade, scientists have started to culture cells in 3D thereby producing micro-tissues, often starting from stem cells. These micro-tissues made of human-derived cells resemble human tissues. But, just like going from 2D printing to 3D printing requires new materials, new software, new ideas and new procedures, going from 2D cell culture to 3D cell culture requires a large number of innovations in the methods, materials and technologies that scientists use to design, perform, analyse and interpret their experiments. The purpose of the 3DbioNet network is to bring together the skills of scientists from many different disciplines within academia and industry needed to identify the stumbling blocks and help building this new way of doing biology.