Rūta Inčiūraitė, PhD

TITLE: The Gut in a Dish: One Model, Many Questions, Multiple Readouts Human intestinal organoids have emerged as versatile experimental models bridging the gap between conventional cell cultures and the complexity of human tissues. But what can we actually learn from a “gut in a dish”? The answer depends not only on the model itself, but on the biological question, experimental configuration and readouts we choose. Patient-derived intestinal organoids preserve key molecular and functional characteristics of their tissue of origin and can be adapted into systems of increasing complexity, from three-dimensional cultures to polarized epithelial models and co-cultures. This presentation will explore how organoid-based systems can address different questions in intestinal biology, from disease-associated molecular signatures to epithelial responses to microbial metabolites, bacterial products and therapeutic interventions. Examples will illustrate how transcriptomic and epigenetic profiling can be complemented by functional readouts of epithelial barrier integrity, inflammatory signalling and polarized responses.

By combining controlled perturbations with omics and functional phenotyping, organoids provide multiple layers of biological information – from molecular mechanisms to dynamic and patient-specific responses. Ultimately, the value of a gut in a dish lies in matching the right model, perturbation and readout to the biological question.