IdentiPhy

Recent research into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) has enabled the development of so-called “heart-on-chip” in vitro models - small lab-grown pieces of cardiac tissue which can be used for controlled, high content testing using human phenotypes. These systems offer promise to revolutionize the way that pharmaceutical companies develop safe and effective drugs. Still, significant challenges remain in how these systems can be effectively deployed into development pipelines. The purpose of the IdentiPhy project is to develop and validate enabling technology that extends systems to predict compound safety risk mechanistically. The technology is based on recent progress in optical measurements using “heart-on-a-chip” microphysiological systems (MPS), layered with a computational framework using a new mathematical formalism to estimate properties of adult cells based on such measurements. Our vision is that through augmenting stem cell tests with computational analysis, we can obtain improved efficiency in drug development pipelines, reducing both cost and time required to bring safe drugs to the market.