Latest advances in In Vitro models

What are the latest trends for new in vitro models ?

I think the latest trend that we are seeing is in terms of the ability of models to be predictive and more relevant to the physiology of a human. This trend is clearly coming on, both in academia, but more interestingly from our point of view, in industry as well. Those technologies are starting to be commercialised and used within drug discovery pipelines. There are well-known examples where they are already embedded as the standard technology. The important thing to recognise is: we are not talking about cell lines here, we are typically talking about stem cell technology for example and people using 3D structures with more complexity than just single cell lines in a kind of monolayer.

We see those technologies now being used actively within big pharma, but also within CROs and biotechs as well. So in my opinion, what is advancing at the moment  is not only the ability to build these complex structures in a way that represents the physiology of the organ or tissue, but also, most importantly, the ability to interrogate them. This ability to look inside these structures using the omics technologies, combined with the ability to build them, I think, is really where the industry is going. You have large amounts of data coming out from complex structures, which you can interpret and look at in terms of patterns using AI;  meaning you now have a really powerful capability, which you probably didn’t have ten years ago.

What is Newcells doing to drive innovation in the field?

What we are doing as Newcells in terms of driving innovation in in vitro models, is, we are focusing on what we believe is the biology. We think the real key aspect, when you are building these complex models, is making sure that the biology you put in, is as closely representative of human physiology as you can. So we tend to not use cell lines. We focus either on stem cell technology, which is one of our core capabilities, or we use primary cells when it is more favorable.  We are quite pragmatic as the end goal is to make an in vitro model which is the most representative and gives you the most predictive data, not to develop an individual technology.

We combine technologies in the ways that we think will give the best model, and that is how we are driving this forward. We are using stem cell technology or CRISPR editing, if that’s required or we are using bioprinting and flow technology – when required to build the most representative model.

Where do you see the biggest advances coming from and how will it impact drug discovery for your clients?

These new complex in vitro models are impacting on our clients workflows and their drug discovery pipelines in a number of ways.  There are three areas where we most commonly work: efficacy studies – so this is building a model of disease and then using drugs to see whether or not they can in some way affect the progression of that disease-, or in safety and in pharmacokinetics – understanding how a drug moves in and out of the tissue-. It is in all of those areas where these models are actually having an impact, often in early drug discovery, usually before new drugs candidates go into animal studies. This is the stage when our clients are trying to get a rich amount of data to determine which is the candidate they finally want to take into human trials. That is where we see these models having a real impact on the discovery processes of our clients.

How does Newcells keep innovating/improving your models and why?

In order for us to stay at the forefront of this technology, Newcells continues to invest in developing advances associated with our core models. We are focusing on retina, kidney and lung, and we can see through interactions with our clients that there are additions or improvements to those models in a number of areas. It could be through higher throughput,  or through the functional readouts that they are looking at, but they can also be in different types of models. For example, in the retina, we have patented a technology to include an immune component into the retina, which, was driven from our customers who are interested in the immunology associated with that particular organ.

We do this internally, but we also do reach out to the academic community. We have a number of collaborations with, for example, the University of Oxford working with us on retina and other collaborations looking at our lung model as well, all of which will help to keep us at the forefront. We work with the technology innovators within the university, as well as feeding in what our customers are telling us. And then we decide which areas we are going to invest into to advance our models.

Where do you see in vitro models in the next 5- 10 years?

If we look in terms of the broader strategic landscape of in vitro models, I think greater use of those models in all areas of drug discovery will become the norm. Based on the regulators, we will most likely see increasing numbers of drugs being taken into clinic coming from in vitro models. From a technical point of view, there is a large focus on linking models together, because obviously, in the human body, all of your organs are connected to each other in some way through fluid flow.  Your liver is connected to your gut, which is connected to your kidneys, etc. We are already looking internally at models connecting a liver model with a lung model and I can see this becoming an increasing focus because,  fundamentally, it is getting very close to the holy Grail, a human body on a chip, where you have got all the major organs of the human body linked and functioning and interacting with each other.

Are in vitro models going to replace animal studies completely?

From our perspective, we can certainly see that happening sometime in the next couple of decades, with  combination of in vitro models in combination with AI technology, improved analytical capabilities and data processing.  You can already see all of those technologies starting to converge and if you can get to a point where we can mimic the human body in an in vitro environment, the requirement for animal studies will be certainly reduced, if not eliminated completely.

Interested in Newcells? Pick up the conversation with our experts in Cambridge on September 19th, 2024 or in San Francisco on October 3rd, 2024.