Saskia Schmidt wins Science Slam Award at Next-Gen Organ-on-Chip 2025 for AOP Chip Presentation

Saskia Schmidt from the Cell Biology and In Vitro Toxicology group won the Science Slam Award at the Next-Gen Organ-on-Chip and Organoids conference 2025, organized by CSEM.

Her three-minute presentation about the AOP chip captured the audience’s attention by drawing parallels between liver fibrosis and football. Using analogies that people can understand is an effective strategy in science communication.

Saskia would like to thank to the organizers, especially Manuela Estermann and Gilles Weder, for giving her the opportunity to present her work. She is also grateful to the sponsor of the Science Slam, Roche, for making this session so inspiring and fun!

Liver fibrosis – a football analogy

What is liver fibrosis? Imagine your liver is a football stadium. Normally, the pitch is replaced after every match, seats are upgraded, and renovations run smoothly. But what if construction never stops? Scaffolding piles up, debris blocks the field, and the stadium turns into a construction site.

That’s exactly what happens in liver fibrosis. And just like in football, fibrosis depends on the teamwork of several players:

• Hepatocytes—the midfielders, break down everything that enters the body.
• Kupffer cells—the defense line, are specialized immune cells that sense and respond to injury.
• Hepatic stellate cells—our physio crew, are responsible for wound healing.

When hepatocytes are damaged, Kupffer cells ring the alarm, activating stellate cells to produce collagen. But too much collagen stiffens the liver, disrupts its function, and ultimately leads to fibrosis.

With the AOP chip developed in our lab, we can improve early detection of liver fibrosis and kick fibrosis off the field!