Avatar, being a virtual representation of
a human being, and in this case it's a
biological representation of the female
reproductive tract, so we call it EVATAR.
So the system that we've invented,
together with Draper Laboratories, is a
series of interconnecting cubes that have
individual tubes that now connect each
of the organs. So we would have actual
samples from an ovary. So we would have, like,
a mouse ovary cultured on one of these transwells.
And the fluid can
dynamically flow between all of these
individual different compartments just
like each of our organs so. As if blood was
carrying factors between different
organs. So this would be the ovary, so
it's coming from here, going into here
and then flowing... It's a little miniature ovary.
So we actually have either the
individual follicles from the ovary -- and
the follicle in the ovary are the cells that
make the hormones, like estrogen and
progesterone, together with the oocyte. Or we
can actually have the entire ovary there.
And that allows us to control the
hormones over a 28-day menstrual cycle
in a box. So understanding how the uterus
responds to hormones is really important.
There is no animal model for a lot
of the stuff that we study and so the human
is really the perfect model to study the
human endometrium, the uterus and
the diseases that are associated with it.
We were able to actually acquire primary
human tissue from women who are having
surgeries for different menstrual or
reproductive-related problems. This is
the first time we've been able to model
the entire reproductive hormone profile
and that profile of menstrual cycle
hormones now allows us to connect those
dynamic hormones to downstream tissues
like the fallopian tube, uterus, cervix
together with a liver and that
integration now will allow us to
understand better about the reproductive
tract, itself, which we don't have good
models for, as well as reproductive diseases.
So now this is going to allow us to test
drugs for individuals so we'll be able
to eventually make
individual organs from each person. So
we'll be able to do personalized
medicine. It's really going to open a whole
new world of reproductive health testing.
