Animal and Patient Derived Precision Cut Tissue Slices for Precision Medicine, Drug and Biomarker Screening Applications

Reproductive System

Principal Investigator

• Dr. Bella B Manshian (Team Leader)
• Department of Imaging and Pathology
• Translational Cell and Tissue Research Unit
• Campus Gasthuisberg-RK-Herestraat 49 - bus 1032 - 3000 Leuven

Short CV

Dr. Bella B Manshian is a team leader at the NanoHealth and Optical Imaging Group, Translational Cell and Tissue Research Unit in the department of Imaging and Pathology at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium. Currently, leading the group on drug delivery systems and 3D ex vivo Precision Cut Tissue Slices (PCTS) technology. Main interests lie in studying toxicity of nanoparticles and developing non-invasive methods for the dual function of visualization and tracking of specific cell types with a strong focus on tumor cells, stem cells, and immune cells while simultaneously delivering therapeutic agents to the target organs. 

Ongoing research projects focus on the generation of non-toxic polymeric drug carriers for cell-targeted delivery in a variety of diseases, mainly cancer. In recent years, developed the PCTS model which more closely recapitulates the in vivo environment since these tissues are kept in their original architechture, live in culture, for a prolonged period. The lab is currently actively working on PCTSs from human ovarian cancer, human intestinal Crohn's diesease, human gliomas, and mouse lungs and liver tissues.

3D tissue models

Ex-vivo 3D tissue explants (precision cut tissue slices) prepared with the Krumdieck Tissue Slicer are living, three-dimensional tissue slices closely resemble the organ from which it is prepared, with all the cell types present in their original tissue-matrix configuration where physiological and organ functionality details are preserved. The cells are biologically active and are surrounded by their original microenvironment, where they communicate with each other and respond to cell-specific stimuli. We are able to perform high content screening of PCTS for drug screening and for fundamental research applications. 

We are currently developing PCTS on chip technology.