Professor Dr Meritxell Huch Ortega

Research Priorities: Organoids, regeneration, physiology, pathophysiology, disease mechanisms
Meritxell Huch Ortega is a pharmacist and biomedical scientist. Her research interests focus on tissue regeneration and the development of tissue-specific disease models for human organs. She elucidates the fundamental principles underlying the maintenance and repair of adult tissues as well as the mechanisms by which their dysregulation contributes to disease. She achieves this through research in 3D organoid models of the stomach, liver, and pancreas, aiming to unravel critical insights into tissue regeneration and pathology.
Regeneration is the process of restoring entire body parts or tissues to their original state. When regeneration fails, disease occurs. Unlike highly active tissues like the gut, which constantly undergo proliferation and differentiation, quiescent tissues require activation to start regeneration. The human liver and pancreas are key models for studying how cells maintain their roles and how these roles change during regeneration and disease. The liver is known for its exceptional ability to regenerate after injury, while the pancreas, despite being similar to the liver, has limited regenerative capacity. Notably, the liver can regenerate almost indefinitely after resection, but its ability is restricted after toxic injuries (e.g., from drugs or alcohol), leading to fibrosis (scarring) or, in some cases, hyperproliferation and cancer.
To explore the mechanisms behind regeneration, Meritxell Huch Ortega has developed 3D organoid models from healthy and diseased tissues of mouse and human organs, including the stomach, liver, and pancreas. In her research she combines these in vitro organoid models with in vivo systems, such as mouse models. By comparing mouse organoids with live injury-repair models, Meritxell Huch Ortega and her research group have shown that these organoids mimic many aspects of in vivo regeneration, providing valuable insights into tissue regeneration and disease mechanisms. They have transferred these models to human tissue to better model human tissue biology and study human tissue repair as well as disease. The goal is to understand in detail how human tissue regenerates and how these mechanisms are disrupted in disease.