Modelling human periportal liver and biliary fibrosis using liver assembloids

• Applicant: Dr. Lei Yuan, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Cell Biology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 564092049

Hepatic fibrosis, a consequence of chronic injury, is commonly observed in several liver diseases which eventually lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Although liver transplantation is an effective treatment, donor availability is limited. Hence, understanding the underlying mechanisms of liver fibrosis is crucial for innovative therapeutic approaches. The liver is a complex organ when it comes to cellular composition and architecture. Similarly, liver fibrosis is a complex disease characterized by multifactorial and multicellular interactions. However, a suitable human in vitro model that recapitulates human liver cell-cell interactions in healthy and fibrotic liver for the comprehensive exploration and development of novel therapies is still lacking. Therefore, our overarching objective is to construct in vitro human liver organoids that partially replicate the complexity of human liver tissue and use them for the analysis of liver multicellular interactions in vitro and for modelling complex liver pathologies such as hepatic fibrosis.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position