3D liver microtissues (also known as 3D spheroids) have the potential to positively impact drug development workflows, particularly when applied to safety assessment and drug discovery processes. These 3D in vitro liver models, which can be engineered to mimic healthy and diseased biology in human or model organisms (e.g., monkey, dog, and rat),  have been proven to be powerful tools for fulfilling the demands of modern toxicology programs, both in terms of providing translational safety insights and pushing the bench closer to the patient bedside.
 
In this lecture, you will learn:
 
1. Practical liver toxicology applications for 3D human liver microtissues, from safety testing to complex disease modeling, using non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) as an example.  
2. Considerations for adapting existing protocols to leverage 3D liver microtissues and upgrade your tox toolbox for investigating specific scientific questions related to drug induced liver injury (DILI) and drug efficacy testing of new drug candidates, such as promising therapies currently under development for NASH —all with a high degree of flexibility.
3. Guidelines for adopting 3D human liver microtissues for use in high-throughput applications, which require uniform spheroid quality, functional robustness, assay scalability, and reproducibility of results.
4. How 3D cell technology is evolving into an investigative tool that will meet the challenges of the next generation of therapeutic modalities.