Imagine growing tiny, simplified versions of human organs, like a mini-liver or heart, on a chip. Instead of testing new medicines on animals that might react differently than humans, this system lets scientists test drugs on these human-like tissues at a massive scale. It's like having a high-tech automated farm for organs that watches every reaction in real-time with a smart microscope.
Current animal models have poor predictive power, leading to a 90% failure rate of drugs in clinical trials. There is a critical lack of technology to screen human-like micro-physiological systems (MPS) at the scale required by pharmaceutical companies.
An automated system consisting of a patented bio-plate and fluid management technology integrated with a fluorescent microscope to culture and drug up to 800 3D microtissues.
If you are a drug discovery firm dealing with the fact that 90% of drugs fail in clinical trials due to poor animal model prediction — this project developed the Mera system that can run up to 800 microtissues simultaneously to improve safety and efficacy predictions.
If you are a CRO dealing with the high cost and low throughput of manual organoid screening — this project developed an automated fluid management and microscopy system that scales testing capacity to 800 MPSs per unit.
If you are a research institute dealing with the difficulty of simulating complex cancer-organ interactions — this project developed a system that recirculates fluids between different tissue types to replicate human body conditions.
By scaling the ability to run up to 800 MPSs simultaneously, the system aims to reduce drug discovery costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.
A single modular unit can run up to 800 microtissues simultaneously, which is eight times more than the nearest competitor.
The system utilizes patented fluid management technologies and a patented bio-plate for culturing and drugging MPSs.
It uses chemical cocktails to mature cells into specific tissue types, such as liver, heart, neuronal, or cancer MPSs, within the bio-plate.
The system includes a fully automated fluorescent microscope that monitors the process in real-time using wide field or fluorescent modes.
The project is led by a single Irish SME, Hooke Bio Ltd, which holds 100% of the industry ratio. This lean structure suggests a highly focused commercial drive, with the company acting as both the coordinator and the sole implementer of the technology.
Contact Hooke Bio Ltd in Ireland for licensing or partnership inquiries regarding the Mera system.
Contact our analysts to explore integration of high-throughput MPS screening into your R&D pipeline.
