I-Corps: Translation Potential of a Cell Culture Platform to Model Dynamic Drug Concentrations In Vitro

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛影响是开发了一个自动化细胞培养平台，以提高临床前药物测试的预测准确性。这项创新有望使测试潜在新药的过程更便宜、更快、更有效。通过模拟人体内药物浓度的变化，这项技术可以在药物开发的早期更好地预测安全问题和治疗效果。这个自动化系统提高了研究效率，从而降低了药物开发成本，节省了药物开发商和患者的资金。这个i-Corps项目利用经验学习和对行业生态系统的第一手调查来评估该技术的翻译潜力。该项目基于一种自动化仪器的开发，该仪器可以随着时间的推移精确调整细胞培养皿中的药物浓度。这项技术建立在之前的研究基础上，该研究表明，细胞对不同的暴露速度做出不同的反应。该系统将用于复制人体细胞在药物治疗过程中的药物暴露情况。目前，如果不使用预测性很差的动物研究或昂贵而耗时的芯片器官实验，就不可能获得通过这些实验获得的信息。该系统承诺通过提高早期药物筛选的生产率和预测准确性来加速制药开发。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this I-Corps project is the development of an automated cell culture platform to enhance the predictive accuracy of preclinical drug testing. This innovation promises to make the process of testing potential new medicines cheaper, faster, and more effective. By mimicking the changes in drug concentration that occur in the human body, the technology can better predict safety issues and treatment effectiveness earlier in drug development. This automated system improves research efficiency, resulting in lower drug development costs, saving both drug developers and patients money.This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the technology. The project is based on the development of an automated instrument that can precisely adjust drug concentrations in a cell culture dish over time. The technology builds on prior studies showing that cells respond differently depending on the rate of exposure. This system will be used to replicate the drug exposure of cells in the human body during the course of drug treatment. Currently, the information gained by these experiments is impossible to attain without the use of poorly predictive animal studies or expensive and time-consuming organ-on-a-chip experiments. The system promises to accelerate pharmaceutical development through enhanced productivity and predictive accuracy of early-stage drug screening.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.