The Brigitte Gomperts laboratory in the UCLA Departments of Pediatrics and Pulmonary Medicine is focused on understanding the side effects that certain cancer treatments and blood diseases have on the lungs. Researchers are seeking to develop targeted stem cell therapies and prevention strategies to repair lung tissue following injury or disease. However, typical two-dimension tissue culture techniques are insufficient to provide a clear picture of lung disease, due to the complexity of the lung. Dr. Gomperts and colleagues are therefore using stem cells to create three-dimensional lung-like organoids that mimic the microstructure of actual lungs. The organoids are beneficial for disease-in-a-dish modeling, high-throughput drug screening and testing for compounds that could be toxic to the lungs. COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, is characterized by fever, coughing, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing. These lung organoids may be useful in the study of COVID-19 towards the development of effective therapeutics.
The lung organoid drug screening platform established by Dr. Gomperts allows for effective screening for drugs against SARS-CoV-2 in human lung cells in their appropriate microarchitecture. Collaborators from the Arumugaswami laboratory have infected these lung organoids with SARS-CoV-2 in high-throughput 96 and 384 well formats. Following infection, plates will be screened by Damoiseaux laboratory researchers in the UCLA Molecular Shared Screening Resource (MSSR) for large-scale, rapid results. Ultimately, this data will provide valuable insights regarding putative COVID-19 treatment efficacy.
Link to faculty webpage: https://stemcell.ucla.edu/member/gomperts
Relevant Cases:
1) UCLA scientists receive grants for COVID-19 research from California’s stem cell agency
2) Accurate model of organ scarring created using stem cells in a lab
3) UCLA researchers discover new compound that promotes lung health