A team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Ali Ertürk, founders of the DISCO method of organ mapping, continues to do groundbreaking research on tissue mapping of organisms, which paves the way to completely stop animal testing and even organ transplants one day.
Prof. Dr. Ali Ertürk is a Turkish neuroscientist, inventor and artist currently living in Munich, Germany. He graduated from Bilkent University in Ankara, Bachelor of Science in 2003, and completed his Ph.D. in Max–Planck–Institute of Neurobiology, Munich. In July 2019, he began his research in a new Helmholtz Institute on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (iTERM) in Munich as the director and a professor in the same institute, Ludwig Maximilian University.
Dr. Ertürk founded the Ertürk Lab as a result of his vision to advance regenerative medicine, imaging technologies and neuroscience. His background in neuroscience and his interest in developing cutting-edge imaging and tissue-clearing planted the seeds of this lab that changed the course of medicine.
In Ertürk Lab, researchers are focusing on improving methods for 3D imaging of tissues and even entire organs. These methods are key parts in mapping the spread of diseases such as cancer and tracking the effects of nanoparticles used as medical treatments on the reduction of the disease. Organ mapping has many other benefits such as the advancements in identification of abnormalities at the cellular level and providing aid to developing targeted treatments. Although these are very significant, the most cutting-edge finding it proposes is in the field of printing 3D organs. Mapping provides a comprehensive blueprint of healthy organ structures that is crucial for designing tissue-engineered or 3D-printed organs for transplants.
Ertürk Lab has contributed to the research on organ mapping significantly. Its unique method is called DISCO (3D Imaging of Solvent Cleared Organs). DISCO method involves replacing the water inside tissues with organic solvents, and this process reduces light scattering and makes the tissue seem transparent. Then, specific cellular components such as proteins and nucleic acids are labeled using fluorescent markers that highlight the structures of such components. By using high resolution microscopy techniques, the resulting 3D images provide detailed insights on the tissue’s structure and its cellular interactions. DISCO has been highly beneficial in investigating the tracking of cancer metastasis at the single-cell level across entire organs, mapping of neural connections to study diseases such as dementia, and understanding the pathways used in the distribution of drugs within tissues.
Dr. Ertürk explains their research with these words: “We are the only research institute that produces these maps in the world. One of the most important technologies that we are currently working on is creating tissues from these maps cell by cell using 3D bioprinters. When the engineering technologies for printing are provided, we believe that we will be able to print large pieces of organs in the future. Even organ transplants can vanish in history. The research to identify diseases and suitable treatment methods and molecules take approximately 8-10 years, and we can drop it nearly to zero. One day when you wake up, your computer might say that there are 10 different medications available to treat your disease.”
Ertürk Lab’s vision is committed to applying state-of-the-art technologies in medicine that give rise to revolutionary new understanding of disease and treatment. Goals include perfecting AI-driven models for predicting drug effects at individual organ level, improving animal testing to better ensure drug safety and effectiveness, making major progress in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering imaging, and nanotechnology as computational doors open the lab's efforts focused on creating large-scale cares that are also personalized to individual patients.
Organ mapping technologies founded by Ertürk Lab’s researchers can replace older techniques used in medicine such as organ transplants and reduce the time of treatment significantly, combined with a well-structured engineering technology. Ertürk Lab’s studies make such enormous impact on the course of medicine with their unique technique. Overall, their work is highly promising and their success in this field is proven. The world of medicine is thrilled to see the next steps they’ll take in their excellent research.
Edited by: Oya Yamaç, Yağmur Ece Nisanoğlu