Max Planck Fellow: Liver Organogenesis
Vallier Lab
We want to understand human development and especially the developmental steps which allow the liver to become functional after birth. For that, we use human induced pluripotent stem cells (hIPSCs) and primary organoids.
Organoids are three-dimensional structures that can be cultured in the dish and we derive them directly from the human liver. They are grown as a 3D ball of cells that are representative of the organ. We combine these models to obtain the knowledge necessary for producing cell types in vitro that are interesting for clinical applications. Using these cells, we are modeling liver diseases in the dish and are developing cell-based therapies as well. We use the basic knowledge that we are gaining from looking at human development to develop a platform that allows us to address major clinical needs.
The Vallier lab joined the Berlin Institute of Health at the Charité (BIH) in 2022, and has set up a satellite lab at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG) in September 2022 as a Max Planck Fellow. Here, we focus on basic research into the stem cell biology of the liver, closely collaborating with the researchers of the MPIMG.