Interview with Professor Matthias P. Lütolf on progress in organoid technology, how the technology is being used in pharmaceutical research and the Institute of Human Biology
3. The Roche Institute of Human Biology
IHB is closely associated with academic research and Roche’s Pharma Research & Early Development (pRED) organisation, which is led by Hans Clevers. IHB pursues a holistic approach to drive forward human model systems ranging from basic research, through applied research and onwards to translational research for drug development with results that have a genuine impact for patients. No other institute in the world provides such seamlessly integrated academic and pharmaceutical research.
The Institute brings together multidisciplinary teams with specialist backgrounds in a large number of fields (physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, computation, etc.), who contribute to projects across disciplines, all supported by cutting-edge technology platforms. Technology platforms include an organoid farm for refining organoids and prototyping organoid scaling, a biobank for developing tissue and organoid biobanking capacity, with a multidisciplinary team of organoid experts, and advanced microscopy and imaging capabilities with cutting edge infrastructure. IHB is located in Basel, Switzerland