ATCC's Podcast: Behind the Biology

What’s next for microphysiological systems? In this episode, Dr. Carolina Lucchesi shares her perspective on how these technologies are advancing toward broader adoption in research and drug development. She discusses the potential of patient-derived models to support personalized medicine, the integration of experimental and in silico approaches, and the hurdles that remain in scaling and automation. The conversation also examines the role of MPS in improving safety and predictability—from early drug screening to infectious disease research—while offering a realistic outlook on their future impact.

What drives a scientist to rethink how we model human biology? In this episode, Dr. Carolina Lucchesi shares how her career evolved from animal-based research to pioneering work in organ-on-a-chip systems. She discusses the technical challenges she helped solve, the growing importance of microphysiological systems in drug discovery, and how ATCC is working to bring greater consistency and trust to these emerging models. The episode also highlights the role of diverse cell sources in building more representative and predictive research systems.

In this episode of Behind the Biology, Dr. Carolina Lucchesi explores microphysiological systems (MPS)—advanced bioengineering devices designed to mimic key organ or tissue functions in a more physiologically relevant way than traditional 2D culture, while offering a more human-relevant alternative than many animal models in specific contexts. Dr Lucchesi digs into what it takes to build and run MPS in practice: choosing materials (and understanding tradeoffs like small molecule absorption), selecting the right cell source (primary cells, organoids, iPSC derived cells, or cell lines), accounting for organ specific mechanical forces (like shear stress), and managing biological complexity across multiple cell types, media, and timelines. The episode closes with how cross industry collaboration and protocol harmonization can improve reproducibility and make data more comparable across platforms.

In this episode, Frank Simione explores the future of ATCC. Frank highlights the transformation initiated by Dr Raymond Cypess and continued by Dr Ruth Cheng, which required ATCC to operate more like a business to achieve financial stability. Frank suggested that ATCC's future lies in vertical growth through revolutionary advancements and major technological innovations, similar to venture capital strategies, to ensure sustainable growth. They acknowledged that while contracts, outbreaks, and pandemics are unpredictable, ATCC is well-prepared to handle such events. Standards will remain integral to ATCC's operations, and David expressed excitement about ATCC's role in developing standards, particularly in bioinformatics.

In this episode, David Yarmosh welcomes Frank Simione back to discuss ATCC's evolution from relying on government subsidies to securing government contracts, a shift initiated in the 1990s under Dr. Raymond Cypess's leadership. The discussion also covers ATCC's unique market position, the importance of preserving materials like the Zika virus, and ATCC's role as a patent depository, starting in 1949 and becoming the first International Depository Authority in 1981.