Utrecht, Netherlands – 25th Jan 2024 – HUB Organoids (HUB), a global leader and sole proprietor of patient-derived organoid technology for drug discovery and development, today announced the global launch of its new IntegriGut Screen. This innovative screening service employs IBD patient-derived organoid monolayers (PDO Monolayers) allowing access to high-quality human data on epithelial barrier function to accelerate the development of novel IBD therapies.
“With 40% of IBD patients failing to respond to mainstay therapies, the need for faster, more physiologically relevant models is pressing,” said Dr Sylvia Boj, Chief Scientific Officer of HUB. “IntegriGut Screen tackles this challenge by utilizing PDO Monolayers from IBD patients, enabling rapid and physiologically relevant evaluations of epithelial barrier function and integrity.”
Fast, Efficient, and Human relevant: IntegriGut Screen accelerate preclinical IBD drug development
IntegriGut Screen offers several key advantages over traditional in vitro and in vivo models:
- Patient-derived: The screen uses PDO Monolayers from IBD patients, providing a more accurate representation of human biology than traditional cell lines.
- Recapitulates in vivo gut epithelium: Thanks to carefully controlled culture conditions, PDO Monolayers recapitulate the structure and function of the in vivo gut epithelium, including all differentiated intestinal cell types and their interactions.
- Derived from a well-characterized IBD biobank: The monolayers are derived from a well-characterized IBD biobank with RNA-seq data, allowing for downstream analysis of response biomarkers.
- Faster than in vivo models: PDO Monolayers are significantly faster than in vivo models.
IntegriGut Screen can be performed in the Efficacy mode using 1-2 pre-selected and pre-expanded PDOs for rapid assessment of a compound´s protective effect against cytokine-induced epithelial damage, which can be evaluated within 3 weeks of compound receival.
Additionally, drug developers can select to enroll for IntegriGut Screen any number of models from HUB´s well characterized IBD Biobank, composed of 30 PDOs from 15 different patients, including models from Crohn’s disease or Ulcerative colitis and from different regions of the gut to obtain human-relevant data on a large patient cohort.
IntegriGut Screen allows a comprehensive overview of epithelial barrier function and integrity by offering three well-established measurements: TEER (transepithelial electrical resistance), permeability, and viability. Additionally, the screen includes a standard of care (tofacitinib), vehicle, and staurosporine for comparison.
For those researchers interested in investigating the role of the immune cells, microbiome or fibroblasts in IBD, HUB currently offers co-culture systems and they are in the process of validating a triple co-culture for advanced investigations.
To learn more about the IntegriGut Screen, please visit our website or contact us at marketing@huborganoids.nl
