In Silico Modelling of Bone Organoids

Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms and structural changes that occur during bone remodelling are crucial for the development of treatments for bone diseases. Animal models are used to overcome the limitations of the sparse number of patients, as diseased animals can be bred and used to test new treatments. However, even if these models are usually a good estimate for the disease, it is not the exact same and often the clinical signs caused by a certain gene defect differ in humans and animals. Efforts to overcome the limitations of animal models have led to the emergence of in vitro and in silico bone models. In vitro human bone models provide new insights and overcome some of the limitations, but they can still be time-consuming and costly. In silico models lead to much faster results, yet their validation usually poses biggest issue. Those limitations can be overcome by combining in silico and in vitro bone models, as the in vitro models can serve as validation data for the in silico models, while the in silico model can be used to pre-screen possible experiments before performing these on the in vitro model.

With this project our goal is to develop a customizable in silico model for in vitro bone organoids that includes individual bone tissue biology and mechanics. Using this, we want to predict the patient-specific tissue growth. By working in a direct feedback loop with the personalized human bone organoids project, we hope to gain essential insights and enable precisely focused research on emerging problems. This approach will serve as a novel platform to facilitate the identification of personalized treatment that target the specific signalling pathways improving the bone mass and strength.