MIMETAS Receives 1.6 Million Dollar Pharma Funding For Kidney-On-A-Chip Nephrotoxicity Model
Leiden, the Netherlands, September 11, 2014 / B3C newswire / - The organ-on-a-chip company MIMETAS has received 1.6 million USD funding for development of a kidney-on-a-chip for toxicological applications. MIMETAS will collaborate in a consortium with Radboudumc (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and FHNW (Basel, Switzerland). A panel of experts from GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Roche, NC3Rs and renowned academic institutions has selected MIMETAS' solution from a strong line-up of competing technologies.
The funding is awarded in the context of the NephroTube CRACK IT Challenge to support development of a microfluidic renal model, predicting renal toxicity during pre-clinical development. The consortium will use the funds to develop, analyze and validate a high-throughput kidney-on-a-chip model by combining MIMETAS' OrganoPlate™ 3D-culturing technology with the human renal cell line ciPTEC™. The resulting model will be used to detect renal tubular injury observed in drug-induced nephrotoxicity. The model's early prediction of nephrotoxicity will help to reduce animal experiments.
The CRACK IT Challenge is organised by the UK-based National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). In December 2013, MIMETAS and her partners received 160.000 dollar funding to develop a successful proof-of-concept.
About MIMETAS
MIMETAS develops organ-on-a-chip technology for testing of new medicines. Its unique microfluidic technology enables testing of drug compounds in high-throughput on miniaturized organ models. These models have better predictivity compared to laboratory animals and conventional cell culture models. The MIMETAS OrganoPlate™ platform supports 3D cell culture under continuous perfusion, membrane-free co-culture and boundary- and gradient formation. MIMETAS develops and validates customised disease, toxicology and transport models and ultimately will make its technology available for personalized therapy selection.
About CRACK IT
The CRACK IT Challenge is a two-phase competition that funds collaborations between industry, academics and SMEs to solve problems related to the 3Rs (reduction, replacement and refinement of animal testing), leading to new products or improved business processes. Large pharmaceutical and chemical industries sponsor the work, define relevant challenges and provide in-kind contributions, such as access to data, compounds or equipment. In the first phase, several teams are selected to carry out proof-of-concept studies for each challenge, but only one team for each challenge will receive the funding to deliver the full challenge in the second phase. CRACK IT was launched by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) as the first open innovation platform designed to bring together industry, academia and SMEs to support the development of marketable products and improved business processes with 3Rs benefits.
Contact
Jos Joore
Chief Business Officer
MIMETAS BV
[email protected]
www.mimetas.com
+31 85 888 31 61