The culture of hepatocytes is critical for developing therapies to replace human-to-human liver transplants. One way to do this is in the form of hepatocyte organoids, which are generally cultured in Matrigel. However, this hydrogel has a largely undefined composition and lot-to-lot variability, creating the need for a standardized extracellular matrix. In the Stevens Lab, Neha Madanagopal uses ELISA, immunofluorescent staining, and image processing algorithms to investigate how other proteins like fibrin will facilitate the culture of hepatocyte organoids.
