Development of lung and lung-liver microphysiological systems for studying SARS-CoV2 infection and immunology

SARS-CoV-2 （COVID-19）大流行引起了科学界和医学界前所未有的全球反应，以加速了解并最终治疗和预防该病毒。迫切需要新的或重新利用的药物和工具来发现它们。目前，发现和开发新药是一个跨越数十年的过程。新药需要在数千名患者进行临床试验之前进行严格的临床前开发。尽管严格，新药在进行临床试验时往往失败。这种开发的很大一部分是在动物模型体内进行的，虽然体内测试已被证明是一种宝贵的资源，但人类和动物之间的固有差异可能导致药物在转化为人类环境时的效果被歪曲。因此，需要新的和创新的工具来提供更真实的人类细胞和组织环境，从而更准确地开发治疗方法。CN Bio的研究小组旨在开发一种更准确地反映人类环境的人体3D“器官芯片”肺细胞培养模型。为了研究SARS-CoV-2对肺部的影响，我们将使用SARS-CoV-2假颗粒，这是活病毒的可靠替代品。该系统还将用于通过连接肝脏和肠道等其他器官系统来研究SARS-CoV-2感染对全身的影响。我们将使用我们最先进的专有技术PhysioMimix系统来实现这些目标。该系统目前用于肝脏建模的商业用途，我们的内部能力使我们能够快速建立原型，测试和验证新的细胞模型。我们将与学术、工业和政府合作伙伴合作，确保该模型适合反映SARS-CoV-2感染的影响。最终，该系统将使全球的研究人员能够调查和了解SARS-CoV-2感染，并允许在达到临床阶段时以更高的准确性和效率开发新药。从这项研究中获得的技术、专门知识和信息将有助于全球抗击该病毒的传播。

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has been met with an unprecedented global response from the scientific and medical communities, to accelerate understanding and ultimately treatment and prophylaxis of the virus. An overwhelming need for new or re-purposed medicines and tools for their discovery exists. Currently, discovering and developing new medicines is a process spanning decades. New medicines require rigorous pre-clinical development prior to clinical trials with thousands of patients. Despite the rigor, new medicines often fail when taken to clinical trial. A large portion of this development is performed _in vivo-_ in animal models and while _in vivo_ testing has proved to be a valuable resource, the inherent differences across human and animals likely results in misrepresenting the effects of the medicines when translated to a human setting. New and innovate tools are therefore required to provide a more realistic representation of the human cell and tissue environments, enabling more accurate development of therapeutics.The team at CN Bio aims to develop a human 3D "organ-on-chip" lung cell culture model that more accurately reflects the human environment. To investigate the effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the lung we will use SARS-CoV-2 pseudoparticles, a reliable alternative to live virus. This system will also be used to investigate the effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection throughout the body by linking other organ systems including the liver and gut. We will use our state-of-the-art proprietary technology, the PhysioMimix system to meet these goals. This system is currently in commercial use for modelling the liver, and our in-house capabilities allows us to rapidly prototype, test and validated new cellular models. We will work in collaboration with academic, industrial and government partners to ensure this model is suitable to reflect the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Ultimately, this system will enable researchers across the globe to investigate and understand SARS-CoV-2 infection and will allow for development of new medicines with improved accuracy and efficiency when reaching clinical stages. The technology, know-how and information obtained from this research will aid in the global fight against the spread of the virus.