CN BIO and iiCON collaborate to validate novel Covid-19 research tools

The Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON) and organ-on-a-chip company (OOC) CN BIO have launched a research collaboration to validate the next generation of Covid-19 research tools.

Led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) iiCON is a £174 million programme that brings together industry, academia, and clinicals to accelerate the discovery, development and deployment of new treatments.

The research agreement will see LSTM validate CN Bio’s lung and lung-liver models, which have been designed to help improve the efficiency and accuracy of Covid-19 drug development.

Through Innovate UK, CN Bio was granted funding to build multi-cellular upper and lower human airway and multi-organ models that more accurately reflect the human environment and deliver more translatable data, in comparison to current in vivo studies.

The combination of in vitro and liver cultures should enable the multi-organ model to study inter-organ crosstalk effects, providing researchers with a deeper understanding of how Covid-19 affects various parts of the body.

The single and multi-organ models were developed for use with the company’s PhysioMimix plug-and-play, lab-benchtop MPS, enabling straightforward incorporation into current pre-clinical research projects investigating the next generation of Covid-19 therapeutics to treat and prevent the infection.

LSTM will now look to demonstrate the ability of the PhysioMimix systems to support the full viral life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 and facilitate testing with anti-viral compounds. Researchers will look to validate the PhysioMimix’s potential to identify PK/PD indices and PD Targets for the development of safe and efficacious dosing regimens of new antiviral therapeutics.

Following this initial evaluation, it is intended that iiCON will have access to the PhysioMimix technology and its associated 3D tissue models for a variety of translational infectious disease projects. A successful outcome from the collaboration will support researchers globally by providing advanced insights to SARS-CoV-2 infections in humans and enable CN Bio to expand its portfolio of OOC models to address a broader and more diverse range of therapeutic areas.

Dr Tomasz Kostrzewski, director of Biology, CN Bio, said: “iiCON’s commitment to collaborative innovation has enabled our pioneering partnership with consortium lead, LSTM. This collaboration will provide access to the institute’s world-leading expertise in infectious disease research, in addition to the consortium’s outstanding industry links.

“As a result of this collaboration, it is our joint intention that the data generated will be published, providing us with proof that supports the adoption of PhysioMimix microphysiological systems into industry, where they can be used as translational tools to accelerate understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection and consequently, accelerate the development of new therapeutic options.”

Professor Giancarlo Biagini, iiCON Platform Lead, head of the Department of Tropical Disease Biology at LSTM, and UKRI Innovation Scholar, said: “Facilitating the industry academic interface to drive forward transformative technologies and fast-track innovative health solutions to our most pressing global infectious disease challenges is at the heart of iiCON’s purpose. 

“As part of the consortium, LSTM is delighted to be entering into this key agreement with CN Bio. By leveraging emerging organ-on-a-chip technology, we aim to develop pre-clinical platforms that accelerate translational research of new therapeutics to manage and treat major human infections, including emerging and high consequence infectious diseases such SARS-COV-2.”