Biology subjects

Jeger-Madiot, N.

Publications and source records attributed to Jeger-Madiot, N..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Scaffold-Free Acoustic Levitation Platforms Enable Scalable Culture of Neuronal Spheroids and Assembly of Layered Cortico - Striatal Assembloids

Engineering three-dimensional neuronal tissues with defined architecture and functional connectivity remains a critical challenge for applications in disease modeling, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine. Recently, a variety of fabrication methods have arisen, such as bioprinting or manual assembly of organoids, but often struggle with scalability, reproducibility, or maintaining cell viability. Here, two scaffold-free acoustic levitation bioreactors are introduced: one optimized for the culture of uniform neuronal spheroids, and another designed for the structuration of assembloids composed of distinct neuronal identities. Using acoustic standing waves, these platforms enable the contactless manipulation of cells and aggregates, facilitating the formation of highly viable functionally mature spheroids. This study shows that both striatal and cortical cell aggregates formed in acoustic levitation self-organize into spheroids within 24 hours and remain viable up to 10 days under these particular culture conditions without medium renewal. These neuro-spheroids demonstrate healthy development with increased growth and typical terminal differentiation and synaptic maturation. Moreover, concentric cortico-striatal assembloids were successfully structured and cultivated using optimized acoustofluidic chips. Offering versatile and scalable tools for engineering complex neuronal networks, acoustic levitation reveals itself as an innovative approach to 3D neuronal tissue modeling, with broad implications for bioengineering, regenerative medicine and fundamental neuroscience research.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

Immune Cells Infiltration of Patient Derived Glioblastoma Cells spheroids in Acoustic Levitation in Bulk Acoustic Wave devices

We describe an acoustofluidic device that allows scaffold-free structuration and culture of multi-cellular tumoroids composed of patient-derived glioblastoma cells only or in combination with non-cancerous cell. A PDMS chip of controlled height was created to allow acoustic levitation of cells using a 2 MHz transducer held on top of the chip. Cells are introduced into the chip through a dedicated inlet upstream of the resonant cavity. The specific design of the cavity together with the acoustic field allow the formation of tumoroids of cells in a precise and controlled manner within the levitation chamber. The acoustic and fluidic environment of the device was determined through experiments confronted with numerical simulations. The control of the flow within the chip was optimized to allow long-term culture of tumoroids and injection of cell culture media without disturbing the tumoroids in levitation. The tumoroids can be also structured, with sequential injections of the different cell types. Using microglia, we show that the acoustofluidic device allows the formation and culture in acoustic levitation of tumoroids mixing cancer cells with other cells populating the tumor as well as immune cell infiltration within the tumoroids. These results demonstrate the suitability of acoustofluidic levitation as an original 3D culture method adapted to the exploration of cancer growth at multiple levels.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2020

Self-organization and culture of Mesenchymal Stromal Cell spheroids in acoustic levitation

In recent years, 3D cell culture models such as spheroid or organoid technologies have known important developments. Many studies have shown that 3D cultures exhibit better biomimetic properties compared to 2D cultures. These properties are important for in-vitro modeling systems, as well as for in-vivo cell therapies and tissue engineering approaches. A reliable use of 3D cellular models still requires standardized protocols with well-controlled and reproducible parameters. To address this challenge, a robust and scaffold-free approach is proposed, which relies on multi-trap acoustic levitation. This technology is successfully applied to Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) maintained in acoustic levitation over a 24-hour period. During the culture, MSCs spontaneously self-organized from cell sheets to cell spheroids with a characteristic time of about ten hours. Each acoustofluidic chip could contain up to 30 spheroids in acoustic levitation and four chips could be ran in parallel, leading to the production of 120 spheroids per experiment. Various biological characterizations showed that the cells inside the spheroids were viable, maintained the expression of their cell surface markers and had a higher differentiation capacity compared to standard 2D culture conditions. These results open the path to long-time cell culture in acoustic levitation of cell sheets or spheroids for any type of cells.

bioengineering↗