CN Bio Launches PhysioMimix, an “In-a-Box” Reagent Kit for NASH

On April 26, 2022, CN Bio, an organ-on-a-chip (OOC) company, announced the launch of its PhysioMimix “in-a-box” reagent kit for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)—a disease that, to-date, has no regulatory-approved therapeutics for treatment because of the inability to predict human responses to this complex disease via traditional in-vivo animal studies.

The NASH-in-a-box (NIAB) kit works in conjunction with CN Bio’s PhysioMimix microphysiological systems (MPS) to provide researchers with in-house capabilities to gain physiologically relevant insights into the mechanism of disease, human drug efficacy, and safety toxicology. The assay addresses the human-relevance limitations of existing approaches, allowing scientists to bridge the gap between human 2D cell culture and expensive animal models, the latter of which have been ineffective in mimicking the full disease spectrum. This connection enables NIAB kit users to generate clinically translatable and predictive data to gain more insightful, accurate, and cost-effective drug development, according to a company press release.

Through the “in-a-box” product range, CN Bio aims to fast-track the incorporation of MPS into drug discovery workflows by providing a straightforward and quick route to recreating OOC assays. The NIAB kit includes a simple-to-follow, software-based protocol for users to allow them to successfully co-culture internally validated primary human hepatocytes, stellate, and Kupffer cells. The protocol enables the formation of 3D microtissue structures that accurately emulate the microarchitecture of the human liver. By introducing fatty acids, researchers can thus recapitulate key non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/NASH disease states, including intracellular fat accumulation, inflammation, and fibrosis. The model enables the investigation of the precise mechanistic effects of drugs (of any modality) and disease via high-content, clinically translatable end-point measurements, according to the company in the press release.

“NASH-in-a-box enables CN Bio to expand our market reach from those who prefer to outsource their testing to our laboratories to those who would rather develop in-house capabilities. As the first in our ‘in-a-box’ range, the launch of the NASH kit represents a significant step towards the widespread adoption of [o]rgan-on-a-chip technology within the drug discovery industry. Consequently, we believe this product will enable discovery programs targeting this disease, which is a large and growing burden on healthcare systems, yet lacks any approved therapies,” said David Hughes, CEO, CN Bio, in the press release.

“This new product demonstrates the full advantages of our microphysiological systems, providing scientists with access to easy-to-use, yet best-in-class liver models in their own labs, streamlining the process and making it far quicker and more cost effective. We believe this will allow for more thorough and accurate testing during the drug development process, which will increase the likelihood of much-needed new NASH drugs to make it to market,” said Ovidiu Novac, senior scientist for CN Bio, in the press release.

Source: CN Bio