MIPS Project Detail:

Mimetas US

HepaPlate Liver-on-a-Chip for Drug Hepatotoxicity

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Company

Mimetas US

Rockville

Montgomery

County

, Maryland

Founded:

2013

Website:

https://www.mimetas.com/

Company Description:

MIMETAS US develops and markets Organ‐on‐a‐Chip solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. These products serve as an early stage screening model to predict toxic side effects and drug efficacy. MIMETAS US’ core product is OrganoPlate™, a microfluidics‐based culture plate that enables the culturing and screening of a range of organ and tissue models that have a better toxic and efficacy predictive value than currently available approaches. OrganoPlates™ will be developed for liver, heart, kidney, cancer, and lung models. They are compatible with standard robot and readout equipment, making the technology amenable to highthroughput automation. OrganoPlates™ are based on a proprietary microfluidic liquid handling technique called Phaseguides™.

MIPS Project

HepaPlate Liver-on-a-Chip for Drug Hepatotoxicity

Project #

5717

|

MIPS Round

57 |

Starting Date:

Jun 2016

MIPS Project Challenge:
The goal of this MIPS project was to develop the HepaPlateTM, a high-throughput hepatotoxicity screening platform that mimics human liver sinusoid, its microenvironment and response to toxins.

Project Scope:
Through this MIPS project, researchers sought to help bring the HepaPlateTM from the conceptual design phase to a fully functional alpha prototype for validation tests against a known hepatotoxin library. Slated research included: determining culture conditions required for human primary hepatocytes to form 3D organoids in OrganoPlates®; determining conditions for the formation of liver sinusoid endothelial cell (LSEC) tubular blood vessel mimics; co‐culturing primary LSECs with 3D hepatocyte organoids and testing the resulting coculture model for ≥ 2‐week lifespan; and preliminary validation of the company’s 3D hepatotoxicity assay with model drugs known to induce hepatotoxic effects.

The current drug development process is hindered by the poor predictive value and high costs of in vitro and animal‐model assessments of drug hepatotoxicity. Hepatic injury accounts for two-thirds of drug development failures. Cost‐effective and accurate prediction of hepatotoxicity will amplify the pharmaceutical industry’s capacity to screen drug candidates and derivatives and select those therapeutics that are least likely to cause druginduced liver injury (DILI) during clinical trials and post‐market approval.

(Source: Mimetas)