2.5.4. Enabling technologies
Download PDF
2.5.4. Enabling technologies
Use the future to build the present
Enabling technologies
Comment
Stakeholder Type
1.1Advanced AI1.2QuantumRevolution1.3UnconventionalComputing1.4AugmentedReality1.5CollectiveIntelligence2.1CognitiveEnhancement2.2HumanApplicationsof GeneticEngineering2.3HealthspanExtension2.4ConsciousnessAugmentation2.5Organoids2.6FutureTherapeutics3.1Decarbonisation3.2EarthSystemsModelling3.3FutureFoodSystems3.4SpaceResources3.5OceanStewardship3.6SolarRadiationModification3.7InfectiousDiseases4.1Science-basedDiplomacy4.2Advancesin ScienceDiplomacy4.3Foresight,Prediction,and FuturesLiteracy4.4Democracy-affirmingTechnologies5.1ComplexSystemsScience5.2Futureof Education5.3Future Economics,Trade andGlobalisation5.4The Scienceof theOrigins of Life5.5SyntheticBiology
1.1Advanced AI1.2QuantumRevolution1.3UnconventionalComputing1.4AugmentedReality1.5CollectiveIntelligence2.1CognitiveEnhancement2.2HumanApplicationsof GeneticEngineering2.3HealthspanExtension2.4ConsciousnessAugmentation2.5Organoids2.6FutureTherapeutics3.1Decarbonisation3.2EarthSystemsModelling3.3FutureFoodSystems3.4SpaceResources3.5OceanStewardship3.6SolarRadiationModification3.7InfectiousDiseases4.1Science-basedDiplomacy4.2Advancesin ScienceDiplomacy4.3Foresight,Prediction,and FuturesLiteracy4.4Democracy-affirmingTechnologies5.1ComplexSystemsScience5.2Futureof Education5.3Future Economics,Trade andGlobalisation5.4The Scienceof theOrigins of Life5.5SyntheticBiology

Sub-Field:

2.5.4Enabling technologies

    Demand for organoids has soared. There is a boom in development tools and several companies have emerged as “app stores” for the mass production of organoids, selling them for research and drug development. However, turning organoids into full-sized organs — along with many other promising potential applications — will require different manufacturing processes to those currently in use.

    The varied protocols researchers use to create organoids result in very heterogeneous organoids, and so standardisation of tools and protocols, and automated production will be among the most important drivers of advancements in this field. The creation and use of standardised organoids will increase reproducibility of results, replicability, and provide the experimental control required for clinical translation.

    This will in turn increase the ease of interdisciplinary collaboration, which could help solve lingering problems such as the difficulty of connecting different organoids to each other on a chip, or the development of realistic vascular networks rather than the microfluidic imitations currently used.

    After these problems are solved, automation can scale up biomanufacturing: robotically produced organs can have nearly identical numbers and types of cells, for example. This could help with the development of bioreactors, which would be necessary for the fabrication of entire organs.

    Future Horizons:

    ×××

    5-yearhorizon

    Collaborations ensue

    Microfluidic approaches and lessons learnt from organs-on-a-chip begin to converge on standard protocols. Consortia lead to interdisciplinary integration. Novel tissue culture supplies with a stronger physiological basis become more widely deployed. AI improves protocols.

    10-yearhorizon

    Organoid production is scaled

    The transition from cell culture to bioreactors allows scalability of complex organoids. Vascularisation begins to become more successful. “Microphysical systems" of cells and bioreactors become standardised and ubiquitous. Solutions are found for storing, managing and sharing the massive volumes of data generated by organoid analysis, from gene expression to electrophysiology.

    25-yearhorizon

    Automation brings industrialisation

    Organs can be created automatically and at scale. The food industry will make meat without animals, using lessons learned from large scale bio-manufacturing, at scales large enough to be useful for food production. As a consequence, food (for humans and other species) will become more nutritious, cheaper and can be personalised.

    Enabling technologies - Anticipation Scores

    How the experts see this field in terms of the expected time to maturity, transformational effect across science and industries, current state of awareness among stakeholders and its possible impact on people, society and the planet. See methodology for more information.

    GESDA Best Reads and Key Resources