Title : Pandemic response: New models for drug discovery
Abstract:
Soon after SARS-CoV-2 was recognised as a pandemic threat, we set out to pioneer technologies to fast-track and de-risk advanced drug development.
Our highly innovative models offers industry access to pioneering technologies which support the development of game-changing novel therapeutics, as well as leading innovative research into physiologically relevant and informative systems for infection modelling.
We have made a range of sophisticated technologies including innovative human tissue & microfluidic models available to industry to fast-track their drug discovery, enabling rapid therapeutic development. Any infection can be rapidly screened, and our repository of human tissue models enables more precise assessment of therapeutic impact and efficacy – helping to de-risk development and support innovation.
Organ-on-a-Chip (OOC) technology is transforming industry’s approach to drug development and precision medicine. In a pioneering development in infection R&D, we have provided access to OOC technology that enables innovators and researchers alike to bypass in-vivo studies and connect multiple organs, creating holistic models that enable faster, more accurate drug development.
The screening platform can support pre-clinical investigation of human pathogens (including coinfections such as HIV/TB) within a human host environment. This research is significantly improving translation of pre-clinical studies to clinical disease – creating much-needed model systems for the screening of virulent -intracellular pathogens.
This expedites the drug development journey and significantly de-risks late-stage clinical efficacy failures - creating a bridge to Controlled Human Infection Models and/or Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, accelerating product registration and commercialisation and introducing new drugs to market.
One example of our work involves a high-throughput, low-cost method for the assessment of compounds targeting SARS-CoV-2. This method was deployed to screen thousands of compounds and was used to study synergistic drug interactions. We have continued to develop more advanced models of infection, using various host-cell types as well as advanced, dynamic-flow organoid infection model systems. In parallel, we have also developed an advanced model of transmission to assess the activity of technologies targeting aerosolised SARS-CoV-2.
Our pre-clinical platforms now form the basis of a comprehensive programme to identify, prioritise and validate candidates suitable for phase I and phase II trials.
