Early considerations for village-in-a-dish platform: a multidisciplinary perspective

The conventional cell culture models are not suitable for large-scale studies of genetic variation in disease mechanisms and drug response due to technical variability, high cost, and labor associated with them. Multiplex cell culture approaches, such as Village-in-a-Dish (ViaD), can address these limitations by enabling simultaneous studies of cells from many individuals in a single experiment. However, the multiplex design of ViaD poses several issues that differ from those of conventional cell culture. In this review, we identify and expound on the issues with ViaD and categorized them as platform-related (inherent to the design) or application-related (dependent on specific context or use). By providing a structured overview of these issues, our findings can help researchers incorporate key technical considerations during study design and interpretation and determine the context in which the multiplex cell culture approaches might be unsuitable.