Cellular Dynamics International and Promega are set to collaborate on a project to speed up the drug discovery process. Scientists will combine bioassays with human cardiomyocytes to improve prediction of side effects that have previously remained undetected until late in the development process or after release of the drug, according to a CDI statement.
CDI has validated a panel of cell-based cytotoxicity assays from Promega that use CDI's human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived iCell Cardiomyocytes. Data presented at the recent Society of Toxicology and the Society of Biomolecular Sciences conferences by CDI demonstrate that Promega's multiplexed biomarker assays can be used to identify known toxic agents with similar sensitivity as reported in the published literature.
CDI and its pharmaceutical collaborators have begun validating such assays to incorporate them into their routine discovery programs. "Pharmaceutical customers recognize the importance of using human models to perform their studies but up until recently, human cell models that exhibited true human biology in vitro were difficult to come by," says Chris Parker, chief commercial officer of CDI."We have several pharmaceutical customers who've validated in vitro cardiotoxicity assays using iCell Cardiomyocytes, which have correlated well with previous data from cardiotoxicity studies in animal-based models."
- see the CDI release