Novel
Approach Could Contribute to Reducing Number of Pre-Clinical Animal Studies
TAP Biosystems, a leading
supplier of innovative cell culture systems and consumables for life science
applications, is pleased to announce that it is collaborating with scientists
at The Open University (OU), in Milton Keynes, UK to produce robust 3D human
central nervous system (CNS) tissue models for use in drug discovery and
pre-clinical testing.
The collaboration between TAP Biosystems and the Faculty of
Science of the OU will run for three years and will focus on developing
technology to generate and manufacture advanced 3D CNS tissue models. Using
TAP's RAFT technology, glial cells and neurons will be made into gel-based
tissues. Cells are seeded in collagen gel in a rectangular mould and tethered
at each end. The cells contract the collagen and become highly aligned,
mimicking the cellular arrangement of living CNS tissue. These tissue models
could be used to monitor the responses of glial cells and neurons to simulated
damage, and could have applications as a tool for pre-clinical screening of
novel therapies for neurological damage and disorders such as Alzheimer's
disease.
Dr James Phillips, Lecturer in Health Sciences in the Faculty of
Science at The Open University explained: "Astrocytes are CNS glial cells that
normally support neuronal activity, but they change behaviour following damage
and can inhibit regeneration. 2D cell cultures of astrocytes and neurons don't
behave in the same way as they do in a living organism and this can limit their
range of uses."
Dr Phillips continued: "We are using the RAFT process with
astrocyte-seeded collagen gels. The cellular alignment created then allows the
other types of cells in our 3D tissue model to organise themselves as they
would in a natural environment. This means we can simulate the interaction
between glial cells and regenerating neurons after CNS injury and monitor both
cell types continuously. We can also carefully control variables, allowing us to
test specific hypotheses, and we can look at the way each cell type responds,
for example to specific drugs, in a very tightly controlled way without the
additional complexity present in an animal model."
"We hope this collaboration will enable us to develop highly
reproducible CNS tissue models, and make them available to academic groups and
pharma companies for research and drug screening," Phillips concluded.
Dr Rosemary Drake, CSO at TAP Biosystems stated: "We are excited
to have Dr Phillips' group as partners to extend the application of the RAFT
process. We will be working together to develop novel 3D human CNS tissue
equivalents that closely mimic the cells' in vivo environment, as well as
reduce the cost and variability associated with current models, and could be a
significant step change in current pre-clinical research. Such models could
contribute to generating more accurate data from novel therapies, and may even
result in a reduction of the numbers of animal studies necessary for screening
potential neuroprotective therapies."
For more information visit
www.tapbiosystems.com
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