To establish an in-vitro biomimetic inner ear organoid formation platform

According to the World Health Organization's forecast, nearly 1 in 4 people of the worldwide population will be living with some degree of hearing loss by 2050. So sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) has been regarded as a major public health burden. And once hearing loss occurrence, it will be irreversible because of the absence of hair cell regeneration. The current clinical treatment and management of SNHL mainly relies on hearing aids and cochlear implants, and it is impossible to eradicate the SNHL. SNHL has become a crucial issue all over the world, there is an urgent clinical need for cell therapy to regenerate the damaged inner ear tissue. However, the US FDA has not yet approved any cell-based product applied on inner ear regeneration up to now. In Taiwan, the relevant Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced the “Administrative Regulation on Special Medical Instruments and Inspection Techniques” in September, 2018. Although it has not yet facilitated any auditory reconstruction related technologies, MetaTech Company (三顧生醫) proposed the use of in-vitro culturing cell sheets for knee joint regeneration and has been approved. It is a breakthrough to use 3D cell mass and subvert the traditional single cell-based therapy! Therefore, the aim of this project is to combine iPSC and dynamic 3D cell culture technology to establish an in-vitro biomimetic inner ear organoid formation platform. The self-designed bioreactor system is suitable for long-term cell culture condition. And the closed-loop design of dynamic cell culture system may accumulate cell-secreted growth factors and exosomes and immediately/continuously inspire the original cell differentiation. We sincerely hope this strategy can be applied on SNHL and opens new avenues for inner ear regeneration.