Tag: Academic research

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The Unspoken Toll: Why Exam Pressure Must Be Part of the Youth Mental Health Discussion

A Conversation with Tatum Redmond and Amanda van der Vyver-Anderson from Community Keepers, South Africa

By Mai El Shoush, Partnerships Campaign Manager, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute

Community Keepers is an award-winning organization based in Stellenbosch, South Africa, which works to improve the social and emotional well-being of learners and their caregivers. The SNF Global Center at the Child Mind Institute works with the organization to further advance the comprehensive mission of transforming schools into safe spaces where student well-being is prioritized alongside academic achievement. This includes strengthening the workforce to expand evidence-based support and brief interventions through low-intensity psychological therapy approaches.

While addressing the workforce gaps, the partnership has yielded valuable insight into the essential competencies front line workers require to effectively support young people experiencing mental health challenges. Together with other NGOs, Community Keepers has also been instrumental in strengthening the process of developing context-sensitive and culturally appropriate training materials scheduled for pilot implementation in South Africa later this year – representing an important step towards strengthening mental health care systems for underserved communities. The partnership also extends beyond training development, as the SNF Global Center at the Child Mind Institute continues to collaborate closely with Community Keepers on an upcoming randomized control trial (RCT). The scientific evaluation will assess both the feasibility of establishing a virtual clinic for young people and the effectiveness of remotely delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions via video consultations. The research is intended to expand access to equitable and quality mental health care for young people across South Africa. Tatum Redmond has been a care facilitator in one of the Community Keepers’ high school-based offices, while Amanda van der Vyver-Anderson is an educational psychologist and heads the training and development of Mental Health First Aiders for internal and external staff.

Amanda van der Vyver-Anderson

How important is it to approach issues such as academic pressure within the wider conversation around youth mental health in South Africa, and beyond?

It is critical to integrate discussions of exam stress into the broader dialogue surrounding youth mental health, both here in South Africa and internationally. We see countless students under immense pressure to not only pass, but also secure their future prospects and meet family expectations. This is unfortunately often dismissed as “just school” or a “normal” experience. However, it impacts a substantial number of young people, often more severely than we acknowledge. And the level of support available is not equitable across the board. Addressing this is crucial because of the detrimental effects on core cognitive functions — and ultimately, academic performance — as well as the significant toll on mental health. This can manifest as anxiety, burnout, and even depression.

In what ways can exam-related stress connect to broader mental health challenges?

While a certain level of stress can serve as a beneficial motivator, severe distress can lead to cognitive shutdown. This specifically impacts the executive functions — planning, organizing, prioritizing, working memory, focus, and concentration — that are fundamental to preparing for exams. This shutdown can then create a detrimental, ongoing cycle of heightened stress about exams or the future, coupled with a decline in the ability to take effective action.

It’s vital to recognize that exam stress does not merely stay in the exam room — it can be a gateway to larger mental health challenges. Constant stress regarding school performance, marks, or the fear of failure can escalate into conditions like anxiety, chronic overwhelm, or depression. Students may experience sleep disruption, poor nutrition, and feelings of inadequacy. And these symptoms often persist long after the test is over. Compounding this is the reluctance of most students to seek help because they believe their feelings are normal or fear appearing weak. Yet, if left unaddressed, sustained pressure along with these symptoms can profoundly affect their psychological well-being.

Tatum Redmond

What role do community-focused organizations such as Community Keepers play in linking academic stress to systematic youth mental health support and improvement?

Organizations like Community Keepers play a truly pivotal role — not merely as emergency responders but as an integrated support system within educational institutions as well. Crucially, they move beyond immediate crisis response by collaborating with schools to develop long-term support and to provide safe spaces to engage in dialogue. They offer genuine attention and care when learners are struggling with school demands, exams, and family pressures.

The approach is not just “addressing stress today” but asking, “How can we create an enduring environment where young people feel safe, supported, and connected?” Doing this requires collaboration with the learners themselves, educators and school staff, as well as parents, caregivers, and community leaders.

What factors make schools uniquely positioned to be safe and supportive spaces?
Schools are exceptionally well-positioned to serve as safe and supportive spaces for students for several key reasons:

  • Learners spend a substantial portion of their day at school, making it a primary setting where adults can observe signs of distress, anxiety, or coping difficulties.
  • Schools have the opportunity to house critical personnel — teachers, counselors, and external partners like Community Keepers — who are on hand to offer support or a listening ear.
  • The curriculum can extend beyond academic skills and learning. It can include mental health and emotional literacy, stress management, and peer support.
  • When a school actively fosters an environment of safety, respect, and validation, it fundamentally alters how learners navigate pressure, stress, or complex personal problems. Having a guaranteed safe space at school is deeply stabilizing for the mind.

How can the goal of securing mental health support as a pillar of education be reached?
Achieving the goal of establishing mental health support as a solid, non-negotiable pillar of education requires several strategic commitments:

  • Schools must actively allocate resources for it, ensuring adequate numbers of support staff, rather than relying on minimal provision. Teachers need training to recognize signs of distress and respond helpfully and appropriately.
  • Mental health literacy must be integrated into the curriculum. Instead of only focusing on academic subjects, topics like stress management, emotional intelligence, and maintaining healthy relationships should be covered.
  • The government must demonstrate a serious commitment, including mental health support in education budgets, developing clear policies, and ensuring rigorous follow-through.

How have your practices and initiatives in promoting and supporting schools as safe spaces made meaningful change?
We’ve observed tangible change in the learners’ attitudes; those who feel comfortable expressing their emotions are generally happier and more resilient because they have established a safe, non-judgmental space where trust is built.

What role can teachers and school leadership play as partners in creating an evidence-based supportive learning environment? Where are the gaps in building capacity and how can they be better supported?
Educators and school leadership are essential partners in establishing an environment that successfully supports learner mental health and cultivates a culture of well-being. They can do so by:

  • Prioritizing both the physical space and curriculum time necessary for learners to engage with support services.
  • Serving as role models who embody and encourage emotional regulation and actively normalize help-seeking behaviour.
  • Remaining deeply cognisant of factors that contribute to learner distress so as to not inadvertently exacerbate it.

Investing in staff wellness and support, capacity building, and policy reform is not merely beneficial, but a foundational requirement to capacitate educators effectively. This allows them to sustainably support the mental health of their entire school community.

The SNF Global Center’s work in South Africa is carried out through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI South Africa). We are proud to expand the partnership with Community Keepers and value their collaboration towards co-creating scalable, school-centered mental health approaches that authentically respond to the diverse lived-experiences of young people.

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Opinion: Subscription pricing could expand access to HIV prevention breakthrough while controlling costs

Figure 2 from the PURPOSE-1 trial changed the world.

Between gray and red bars representing the study’s background HIV incidence and the arms randomized to receive oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was white space filled only by a previously unimaginable number: zero. Zero infections over one year among the 2,134 cisgender adolescent girls and young women who received the novel long-acting injectable antiretroviral lenacapavir.

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Hydrogel-Based Axon Model Improves Early Testing for MS Remyelination Therapies

Axons—the long, cable‑like projections that relay electrical signals across the nervous system—depend on tightly wrapped layers of myelin to keep those messages fast and reliable. When this insulation is damaged, as in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurodegenerative diseases, signal transmission slows and neurons eventually degenerate. Although oligodendrocytes can repair myelin early on in the process, this capacity declines with age and repeated inflammatory attacks, leaving researchers searching for therapies that can restore myelin more effectively.

A team at University College London (UCL) has now developed a more physiologically realistic way to study how myelin forms—and how potential drugs might influence that process. Their new hydrogel‑based axon model, described in Nature Methods in a paper titled “Tunable hydrogel‑based micropillar arrays for myelination studies,” recreates both the geometry and softness of real axons. The platform is designed to address a longstanding problem in the field: many drug candidates that appear promising in rigid, plastic‑based lab models ultimately fail in human trials.

“To stop MS, we need therapies that repair myelin,” said senior author Emad Moeendarbary, PhD, professor of cell mechanics and mechanobiology at UCL and CEO of BioRecode. “Promising drug candidates in the past have failed when tested in human patients. One factor might be that laboratory models do not replicate the basic physical properties of the human brain.”

The UCL team engineered vertical micropillars—each tens of times thinner than a human hair—using a microfabrication process called photolithography that allowed them to precisely tune diameter, spacing, and stiffness. Unlike earlier artificial axons made from hard polymers, these pillars are composed of polyacrylamide hydrogel, a material whose elasticity can be adjusted to match the ~5 kPa softness of native axons. As the authors noted in the paper, the system “mimics the three‑dimensional architecture and softness of axons,” enabling oligodendrocytes to form “multilayered compact myelin” around the pillars.

The researchers seeded the hydrogel pillars with human and rodent oligodendrocytes and tested several candidate remyelination drugs. When the pillars were tuned to realistic softness, drug performance dropped—suggesting that overly rigid models may have produced misleading hits in the past. “Our work suggests that commonly used rigid models, hundreds of times stiffer than real axons, can generate misleading drug hits,” Moeendarbary said. “We believe that our more life-like model can be used as a more robust early test of drug candidates and as a platform to discover new drugs.”

The study also marks the first demonstration of compact, multilayered myelin grown from human oligodendrocytes in a fully hydrogel‑based system. The platform’s design allows high‑content imaging, transcriptomic profiling, and systematic variation of mechanical cues—capabilities that could help researchers dissect how myelin forms and why it fails in disease.

Building such a soft, microscale structure was not trivial. “Hydrogel is a close mimic of living cells… but to fabricate a soft hydrogel at such a small scale is not an easy task,” Moeendarbary noted, crediting the five years of work led by PhD student Soufian Lasli and Claire Vinel, PhD.

By more faithfully recreating the physical environment of the brain, the UCL team hopes their model will provide a more reliable proving ground for remyelination therapies before they reach clinical trials.

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Health Beliefs and Perspectives of Parents Regarding Human Papillomavirus Vaccination in Kuwait: Qualitative Study

Background: After breast cancer, cervical cancer (CC) is one of the leading causes of female mortality. CC accounts for more than 7.5% of female cancer deaths worldwide. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease in women and the leading cause of CC in almost 99% of all CC cases. HPV vaccination could prevent up to 70% of HPV-related CC and 90% of genital warts. HPV vaccination is the bedrock of primary prevention and helps reduce the incidence and death rates of HPV-associated CC. Objective: The study aimed to understand the knowledge, health beliefs, and perspectives of Kuwaiti parents regarding HPV vaccination, with the goal of developing a health promotion policy and introducing a national immunization program in Kuwait. Methods: A total of 37 participants were evaluated using purposive sampling to select 20 (54%) participants for one-on-one semistructured interviews. We wanted to include both participants (male and female parents) with primary education (diploma or below) or secondary and higher education (bachelor’s degree and above). We had four categories (male parents/guardians with a diploma or below, male parents/guardians with a bachelor’s degree or above, female parents/guardians with a diploma or below, and female parents/guardians with a bachelor’s degree or above) with at least 5 participants in each category, which gave us 20 participants. Semistructured interviews were based on the Health Belief Model (HBM). The data were thematically analyzed using an inductive approach, generating themes through the theoretical framework of the HBM, and theme extraction analyses were managed on a semantic level. Results: We identified 7 main themes containing 20 subthemes. The seven themes were (1) knowledge and awareness about HPV infection and vaccination (3 subthemes); (2) perceived susceptibility, which is explained by the HPV infection effect based on sex (2 subthemes); (3) perceived barriers to HPV vaccination (8 subthemes); (4) perceived benefits (1 subtheme); (5) perceived severity (2 subthemes); (6) perceived efficacy (2 subthemes); and (7) cues to action (2 subthemes). Conclusions: The HBM framework is beneficial for Kuwait’s HPV vaccination campaign. The correlation between sexual intercourse and the HPV vaccine frequently adds complexity to the decision-making process about immunization. This study demonstrates that positive cues to action from health care practitioners and educational vaccination benefits can overcome perceived barriers among parents related to stigma and religion. It is essential to conduct more such research to guide the development of interventions aimed at promoting adoption of the HPV vaccine.
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EPA to put microplastics on study list of contaminants in drinking water

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed including microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could eventually lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency is responding to Americans who have worried about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. The gesture also aims to hand a win to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA movement, which for months has pressured Zeldin to further crack down on environmental contaminants.

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Top 10 Organoid Companies

The past year marked a proverbial inflection point for organoid models designed to uncover biological insights previously unattainable through traditional cell culture experiments or animal models.

The FDA in October approved the first-ever investigational new drug (IND) submission supported solely through human vascularized organoid-based combination studies, without relying on traditional animal efficacy proof-of-concept (POC) testing. The IND application by SillaJen enabled the South Korea-based developer of oncolytic virus immunotherapeutics to begin clinical trials for a combination therapy consisting of tislelizumab or paclitaxel and BAL0891, a dual inhibitor of threonine tyrosine kinase (TTK) and polo-like kinase 1 (PLK).

SillaJen’s combo therapy incorporating BAL0891 is being evaluated in a Phase I trial (NCT05768932) whose primary completion date is estimated at December 24. SillaJen’s IND included preclinical efficacy data generated through the vascularized tumor immune microenvironment model (vTIME) developed by Qureator.

The vTIME platform and SillaJen’s trial are early examples of the shift away from animal testing toward new approach methodologies (NAMs), which the FDA sought to advance through the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, enacted in 2022. The measure removed the animal testing requirement for new FDA-regulated products that was imposed through the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act of 1938.

“By leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing, and real-world human data, we can get safer treatments to patients faster and more reliably, while also reducing R&D costs and drug prices,” FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary, MD, stated last year. “It is a win-win for public health and ethics.”

The changing regulatory climate is expected to nearly triple the size of the global organoids market over the next five years, from $1.20 billion last year and a projected $1.42 billion this year to $3.29 billion in 2031—a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.31%, according to a Mordor Intelligence report released in February. The report listed market share leaders in several categories, including:

  • Source: Stem-cell-derived models (58.43%)
  • Organ type: Intestinal cultures (28.65%)
  • Application: Drug discovery and screening (46.54%)
  • End users: Biopharma companies (55.63%)
  • Technology: Scaffold-based 3D culture (32.65%)

Given their growing role in drug discovery and prospects for future growth, GEN has compiled its first-ever A-List of organoid companies.

Public companies are ranked by their combined revenues for 2025—or if not available, by their combined revenues for the first nine months of 2025 and fourth quarter of 2024—as disclosed in regulatory filings, including sales of products or services, as well as revenue from collaborations and R&D activity.

The top five public companies are ranked below. Just outside the top five at #6 was Takara Bio, whose reagents business includes organoids. Reagents generated a combined ¥31.211 billion ($197.19 million) in net sales between January and March 2025, the final quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, and April-December 2025, the first three quarters of its FY 2026. Also outside the top five was Tecan Group, whose Life Sciences Business racked up CHF 377.1 million (about $483 million) in 2025 revenue. Two Chinese companies, ACRObiosystems and Sino Biological, reported smaller revenue figures.

Private companies are ranked by the total capital they have raised, as disclosed by the companies themselves, either in press statements or in responses to GEN queries verifying figures compiled by other sources. Companies that failed to respond at deadline have been ranked according to their most recently published figures for total capital raised.

The top five private organoid companies are ranked below. Private companies placing between #6 and #10 in GEN’s rankings include Pandorum Technologies (a reported $43.7 million in total capital raised), Parallel Bio ($30 million), Mimetas (a reported $29.4 million), 28bio ($24 million), and Curi Bio (a reported $20.1 million).

28bio and publicly traded Corning co-sponsored GEN’s recent Spotlight on Organoids, a virtual summit exploring how, from drug developers to universities to research institutions, investigators are increasingly using organoid models. This inaugural GEN Spotlight is available to watch on demand; registration is free.

Not included among the ranked private companies is Crown Bioscience. While the San Diego provider of translational oncology services—including the organoid panel screening platform OrganoidXplore—has raised a reported $108 million in total capital, Crown announced plans last November to be sold by Sunnyvale, CA-based JSR Life Sciences for $204 million to Hangzhou, China-based Adicon Holdings, a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group.

 

Top 5 Public Companies
 

1. Thermo Fisher Scientific  (Life Sciences Solutions segment)

Revenue: $10.374 billion in 2025

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Life Sciences Solutions segment includes sales from products used in developing organoids, such as OncoPro Tumoroid Cell Lines to support tumoroid development, StemFlex Medium for robust expansion of pluripotent stem cells, and Geltrex Flex matrix for the growth of a variety of cells in 3D cell cultures. In December, Thermo Fisher and AIM Biotech announced a partnership to develop standardized, reliable microphysiological systems (MPSs), focused initially on creating vascularized tumoroid models that the companies said could revolutionize cancer research and immunotherapy development. AIM Biotech contributed its organiX MPS for organoids and biopsies, as well as its VasQ Kit, all-in-one vascularization solution, and technical expertise, while Thermo Fisher provided well-characterized patient-derived tumoroid models, fit-for-purpose OncoPro Tumoroid Culture Medium, and supporting reagents.
 

2. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (Life Science business)

Revenue: €8.98 billion ($10.348 billion) in 2025

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, aims to build a leading presence in organoids through foundational technology, a growing portfolio of patient-derived models, and scalable commercial capabilities. In January 2025, the company announced its acquisition of organoid development pioneer HUB Organoids Holding, based in Utrecht, The Netherlands. By integrating HUB’s patient-derived organoid technology with its existing cell culture expertise, Merck KGaA envisioned enhancing its value to researchers seeking to apply 3D cell culture and next-generation biology to understand drug response earlier in development. In October, Merck KGaA launched a partnership with Promega to develop assays capable of tracking cellular activity in real time using a reporter system within organoids, allowing for testing in models that are physiologically more relevant than traditional two-dimensional models.
 

3. Danaher (Life Sciences segment)

Revenue: $7.334 billion in2025

In a December 3 post on its blog, Danaher tallied eight companies within its family of operating companies as being involved in developing organoids: Abcam, Beckman Coulter (non-diagnostic business), Genedata, IDBS, Leica Microsystems, Molecular Devices, Phenomenex, and SCIEX. The eight offer a comprehensive suite of products and technologies designed to support every stage of organoid development, from sample preparation to advanced data analysis. In December, researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM), Molecular Devices, and other partners published a study detailing a new human liver organoid microarray developed by the hospital and Roche—a study co-funded by Danaher, Roche, and the Farmer Family Foundation. CuSTOM and Danaher launched their organoid development partnership in 2024.
 

4. Charles River Laboratories (Discovery and Safety Assessment segment)

Revenue: $2.403 billion in 2025 1

“From models to living systems, next-generation organoids are on the rise,” Charles River Laboratories declared in a December 4 post on its Eureka blog. “As drug discovery and development accelerate the adoption of NAMs, organoids themselves are entering a transformative era,” added Tània Martiáñez Canales, PhD, senior scientist, and Ludovico Buti, PhD, senior research leader. Immune and vascular-competent tumor organoids now capture the full complexity of the tumor microenvironment, while recent liver organoid models now approach the quality of transplant-grade tissues by exhibiting complete metabolic zonation, recapitulating the three liver’s metabolic zones, and even organ-specific vasculature. In November, Charles River committed to “evaluating opportunities to enhance its scientific capabilities” in NAMs while refining its portfolio to maximize financial performance and divest underperforming or non-core assets.
 

5. Corning (Life Sciences segment)

Revenue: $972 million in 2025

Corning offerings for organoid development include a software extension enabling Corning Cell Counter® operators to capture rapid data of 3D cell cultures based on the structure’s morphology, to the company’s Corning® Matrigel® Matrix, a solubilized basement membrane preparation used as a scaffold option to support cell expansion in organoid cultures, and Matrigel Matrix 3D plates. Matrigel and a Corning 96-well round-bottom ultra-low adhesion plate were among supplies from numerous companies used by researchers at Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, in creating a West Nile virus encephalitis model using human cerebral organoids generated with male induced pluripotent stem cells—an effort detailed in a paper published March 7 in Nature Communications.
 

1 2025 revenue consists of the 12 months ending December 27, 2025

 

 

Top 5 Private Companies
 

1. Emulate

Total Capital Raised: $250 million

Emulate partnered with FujiFilm Cellular Dynamics in November to launch the Emulate Brain-Chip R1, a first-in-class isogenic model of the neurovascular unit designed to offer researchers a new platform for studying drug transport across the blood-brain barrier, as well as investigating mechanisms of neuroinflammation. Brain-Chip R1 integrates FujiFilm’s iCell® products co-cultured with Emulate’s induced Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells. In June, Emulate commercially introduced the AVA™ Emulation System, a self-contained instrument designed to culture, incubate, and image up to 96 individual organ-chip samples or “Emulations” in a single run—as well as to deliver in vivo-level insights faster than animal models while cutting consumable costs fourfold and in-lab labor by half compared to current generation technologies.
 

2. Prellis Biologics

Total Capital Raised: “More than” $88 million

Prellis Biologics has combined its EXIS™ organoid and AntiGen AI platforms into a platform called Biological AI that is being applied by Eli Lilly to develop next-generation antibodies, under a collaboration of undisclosed value announced in September. Lilly agreed to pay Prellis an upfront payment, payments tied to achieving development and sales milestones, plus royalties for the licensed antibodies. “With industry-leading speed (about 3-4 weeks), the EXIS™ platform generates diverse, high-affinity antibodies, derived from fully human artificial lymph node organoids against a wide array of targets and target classes, including GPCRs. These hits are then matured by artificial intelligence into drug candidates,” stated Prellis CEO Mike Nohaile, PhD.
 

3. InSphero

Total Capital Raised: $63.5 million 1

Swiss-based InSphero, in February, joined PharmaNest to launch a translational fibrosis partnership of undisclosed value, through which the companies will apply machine learning tools in combination with human preclinical models to decipher complex pathological phenotypes toward the identification of effective therapies. The collaboration combines InSphero’s advanced 3D spheroid models with PharmaNest’s high-resolution, single-fiber digital pathology, with the aim of enabling AI-assisted, precise phenotyping of fibrosis severity and remodeling for liver fibrosis in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and other fibrotic 3D in-vitro models. Also in February, InSphero completed its acquisition for an undisclosed price of Doppl and its Sun Bioscience Gri3D® organoid culture platform. “For our customers, this acquisition means access to an even broader, more integrated portfolio of scalable 3D cell culture plates and organoid technologies designed to work seamlessly together,” InSphero CEO and co-founder Jan Lichtenberg, PhD, stated on LinkedIn.
 

4. CN Bio

Total Capital Raised: $60 million

CN Bio isn’t an organoid company per se, but it told GEN its organ-on-a-chip (OOC) technology is positioned to improve the human accuracy and predictivity of organoid workflows. CN Bio recommends supplementing organoids with OOC cultures designed to represent 3D tissues with more human-relevant spatial organization: “Supplementing organoid use with OOC provides the means to further advance workflows by unlocking the ability to detect deeper mechanistic insights, more complex and latent effects that may otherwise be missed,” Emily Richardson, PhD, a lead scientist on CN Bio’s R&D team, wrote on the company’s blog. In October, CN Bio launched PhysioMimix® Core, an all-in-one OOC microphysiological system (MPS) designed to be the first OOC solution to deliver validated performance across single-organ, multi-organ, and higher-throughput configurations.
 

5. Inventia Life Science

Total Capital Raised: AU$65 million ($46.5 million)

Inventia Life Science’s RASTRUM™ platform is designed to help researchers generate reproducible organoids in minutes by enabling the automated, high-throughput 3D bioprinting of cell-laden hydrogels. Last year, Sydney-based Inventia launched its next-generation version of the platform, RASTRUM™ Allegro, whose specs include producing 3D cell models in six minutes for a 96-well plate and nine minutes for a 384-well plate, with a throughput of 35+ plates a day. Optimized for patient-derived samples and translational research, RASTRUM Allegro is intended to enable the creation of more models from limited cell numbers, up to 3.5x more cell models compared to previous generations—a milestone, says the company, toward democratizing 3D cell culture for all researchers.
 

1 Figure published by PitchBook. At deadline, InSphero had not responded to GEN queries seeking to confirm the total capital raised figure.

 

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Screening the Digital Skills of Patients in Geriatric Rehabilitation: Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

<strong>Background:</strong> Digitalization in geriatric rehabilitation presents unique challenges, making it essential to align eHealth solutions with patients’ digital skills. The Quickscan Digital Skills (QDS) is a tool designed to help health care professionals match eHealth interventions to individual skill levels. <strong>Objective:</strong> This study aimed to explore the applicability of QDS by comparing it to self-reported digital skills and to gain insight into the digital skills of patients in geriatric rehabilitation. <strong>Methods:</strong> In this multicenter cross-sectional study, participants from 13 geriatric rehabilitation centers in the Netherlands completed a survey, including demographic questions, QDS, and a numeric rating scale (NRS) for self-reported digital skills. Participants were categorized into 3 skill levels (beginner, intermediate, and experienced) based on the cutoff points in QDS scores. Cutoff points were predetermined, guided by the information provided on QDS. Descriptive statistics for median age and frequencies for skill levels were calculated. Comparative analysis using a Kruskal-Wallis test assessed differences between QDS and NRS within these groups, and Spearman rank-order correlation examined the relationship between the two measures. To gain more insight into the different skill levels between groups, data were visualized and associations among age, gender, and digital skill levels were examined using ordinal logistic regression analysis. <strong>Results:</strong> A total of 463 patients (median age 78, IQR 12 years; 282/463, 60.9% female) participated in this study. Based on QDS scores, 42.1% (195/463) were classified as beginners, 19.4% (90/463) as intermediates, and 38.4% (178/463) as experienced users. A moderate positive correlation was found between QDS and NRS scores. Digital skills generally declined with age: 69.8% (37/53) of participants younger than 65 years were experienced users compared to only 13.2% (5/38) of those older than 91 years. A logistic regression analysis showed that increasing age was significantly associated with lower digital skill levels (odds ratio 0.93, 95% CI 0.92-0.95; <i>P</i>&lt;.001). The association between age and digital skills does not differ between males and females. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> This study suggests that QDS is a promising and practical screening tool for assessing digital skills in patients in geriatric rehabilitation. Self-reported digital skills with an NRS do not capture the differentiation in the assessed abilities by QDS. QDS could be a practical tool for identifying digital skill levels in patients in geriatric rehabilitation and can support more personalized eHealth implementation. Further research should explore the parametric properties of QDS and how the scores relate to actual eHealth use.
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Orchestrating the Development of a Sustainable Network IT Solution for a Research Network: Qualitative Participatory Multimethod Design

Background: Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) rely on sustainable and interoperable IT infrastructures to support coordination, data management, and long-term collaboration across geographically distributed primary care practices. Large federated initiatives, such as the German DESAM-ForNet (Initiative of German Practice-Based Research Networks) program, face substantial sociotechnical challenges, as diverse user groups, heterogeneous local systems, and multiple governance levels must align around shared digital solutions. Objective: The aim of this study was to design and evaluate a participatory, consensus-driven process for developing a sustainable and interoperable IT solution that supports the coordination of multiple regional PBRNs, and to identify the sociotechnical factors that influence how such a process unfolds. Methods: A qualitative participatory multimethod design combined an iterative consensus-based IT development process in a central working group, interdisciplinary domain-driven design workshops (N=40 stakeholders from 6 PBRNs), and qualitative content analysis of internal documents (2020‐2025). Members of the IT working group were nominated by networks based on IT responsibility and strategic involvement; workshop participants represented general practitioners, study nurses, researchers, and coordinators. Documents (meeting minutes, workshop artifacts, and decision logs) were coded inductively by 2 authors to trace sociotechnical dynamics and decision trajectories. Results: The analysis revealed pronounced differences in IT ambitions, resources, and established practices across the 6 PBRNs (ranging from 2 to 90 person-months), which resulted in divergent expectations and uneven readiness for joint development. This heterogeneity—spanning objectives from simple REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture; Vanderbilt University) databases to comprehensive digitization strategies—necessitated network-specific bounded contexts within a federated architecture. Through iterative development, stakeholders reached consensus on 6 core use cases (base data management, screening or recruitment processes, study or event participation tracking, management of event participation, accreditation procedures, and standardized communication or data exchange) and 2 national proofs-of-concept: quarterly key performance indicator reporting and pseudonymized practice queries based on a shared core dataset. This collaborative process culminated in a 3-tier practice relationship management infrastructure that integrates local autonomy with central metadata management and connectors to the Medical Informatics Initiative and REDCap, and was endorsed by the steering committee as a scalable compromise balancing interoperability and data sovereignty. Conclusions: The study shows that developing a national, interoperable IT infrastructure for PBRNs depends as much on social and organizational alignment as it does on technical solutions. Iterative participatory collaboration, transparent governance, and early stakeholder engagement were essential for building shared understanding and trust. Strengthening these relational and organizational elements will be crucial for sustaining future implementation efforts and fully realizing the potential of federated data infrastructures in primary care research.
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Additive and Multiplicative Effects of Socially Stigmatized Identities Using Linear Regression to Model Effects on Self-Reported Overall Health as Reported in the All of Us Research Program: Quantitative Analysis

Background: Individuals with one or more socially stigmatized identities experience extensive health disparities, resulting in poorer health outcomes. However, most studies consider the effects of only individual stigmatized identities. Objective: We aimed to quantitatively estimate the additive and multiplicative effects of stigmatized identities on self-reported overall health. Methods: We used survey data from 387,411 participants in the All of Us Research Program, which has assembled a disease-agnostic cohort intended to reflect the US population, to statistically estimate the first- and second-order effects of 47 stigmatized identities on self-reported overall health. We used a linear model to estimate the effects of individual and pairwise stigmas on self-ratings of overall health. Results: We began by aiming to create cohorts for all 93 stigmatized identities previously found to affect health, of which 47 (51%) could be practicably examined. We first modeled individual stigmas alone to contrast the results with those that included both individual and pairwise stigmas. After using the false discovery rate to adjust for testing multiple hypotheses in the collective model, 29 individual and 116 pairs of stigmas had statistically significant effects on self-reported overall health. All significant individual effects were negative or neutral except for skin cancer. Those with the largest negative effect on self-rated overall health were difficulty walking or climbing stairs, unemployed or unable to work, difficulty with errands, and low educational attainment. Pairs of intersecting stigmas had a mix of negative and positive incremental effects, indicating that some stigmatized identities are negative modifiers, such as depression, and other combinations are less negative than the sum of their individual negative effects, such as having difficulty with multiple types of activities of daily living. The individual stigmas with the largest number of statistically significant stigma pairs were unemployed or unable to work (14/47, 30%); depression and low income (11/47 each, 24%); and difficulty walking or climbing stairs, cognitive difficulties, obesity, and skin cancer (8/47 each, 17%). Conclusions: Taken together, numerous pairs of stigmatized identities significantly affect self-reported overall health. While each stigmatization has both direct and indirect effects on health, the relative importance of direct and indirect effects will vary. Many of these are aligned with prior literature, and others warrant further exploration. While the large sample size of this study is a strength, we were unable to model higher-order intersectionality and encourage future research exploring this. The individual and pairwise identities with significant negative effects should be incorporated into research and clinical care by considering the multidimensionality of individuals and how that affects their overall health.
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