Hmap Center

The Human Models for Analysis of Pathway's (H-MAP) Center brings together leading experts in human pluripotent stem cell biology, human development, microfluidics and microscale tissue engineering to develop organotypic human models / human organs on a chip. The Center will also form organotypic human models in robust, innovative high throughput screening systems and identify mechanisms of action associated with toxicity using bioinformatics-based pathway analysis. The need for human, organotypic culture models coupled with the requirements of contemporary toxin screening (i.e. reproducibility, high throughput, transferability of data, clear mechanisms of action, defined adverse outcomes) frame an opportunity for a paradigm shift. The H-MAPs Center is committed to transforming chemical toxicity testing by taking advantage of advances in biology, biotechnology, and computer modeling. The overall objective of this program is to create transformative organotypic human models in formats that offer unique practical capabilities for toxin screening and pathway analysis. The H-MAPs Center Objectives are to: 1) Generate pluripotent stem cell-derived cells that properly represent the diverse phenotypic characteristics of developing or mature human somatic cells; 2) Generate organotypic cell culture models that are robust and reproducible; 3) Translate organotypic cell culture models to microscale systems for HTS; 4) Combine genomic/epigenomic analyses with bioinformatics to gain molecular level insights into organotypic model assembly and the pathways influenced by toxins.