US biotechnology startup Vivodyne has developed a platform combining lab-grown human tissues, robotics and artificial intelligence to test drugs and reduce the need for animal experimentation.
The San Francisco-based company has created a system that uses millions of miniature human tissue samples to evaluate the efficacy and potential adverse effects of new drugs. The technology aims to address one of the persistent limitations of pharmaceutical development: the high failure rate of compounds that show positive results in animal trials but fail to produce the same effects in humans.
Vivodyne’s platform is organised around robotised laboratories called ‘hives’, capable of conducting controlled experiments on more than three million human tissue samples per year. The process begins with human cells — which can be obtained from a blood draw — that are subsequently cultured in small devices known as biological chips.
Inside these devices, cells develop structures that replicate certain functions of human organs, including tissues with blood vessels and immune system cells. While they do not constitute miniature complete organs, these structures allow researchers to study specific biological responses in a manner more closely aligned with human physiology.
Through robotised systems, researchers are able to administer drugs, test cell therapies, modify genes and continuously monitor tissue responses. Artificial intelligence is used to select experiments, analyse results and determine which tests should be conducted next.
According to Vivodyne, the platform can test tens of thousands of compounds on a given tissue type and repeat experiments across different tissues. This allows researchers to observe, for example, whether a disease-affected tissue recovers following a particular treatment, or whether a drug causes damage to healthy tissues.
Vivodyne claims its technology can operate at a scale up to one thousand times greater than comparable solutions based on lab-grown human tissues. The company also states it works with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms, though it has not disclosed the names of its partners.
Beyond reducing the use of animals in experiments, the technology seeks to accelerate the drug development process. The company estimates that researching certain diseases using genetically modified mice can require approximately one and a half years just to breed the animals, while its platform can complete around 25 experimental cycles during the same period.
According to technology news site Zap, the use of alternatives to animal testing has gained traction in the United States following legislative changes that now allow certain drugs to advance to clinical trials without relying exclusively on traditional animal testing. Vivodyne believes both methods will continue to coexist for some time, but the company anticipates a gradual reduction in animal use as technologies capable of more faithfully replicating human biology continue to develop.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/?p=545790
