Pluriomics B.V. is a Dutch company that specializes in the “production and industrialization of high-quality, fully functional hiPS cells-derived cardiovascular cell types and on the development and realization of electrophysiology-, biochemistry- and contraction-based assays for predictive safety pharmacology, toxicology testing and efficacy screening.”
The company has announced that it will lead a €2.0 million Eurostars consortium for the development of a novel in vitro organ-on-a-chip heart failure model for drug discovery and development.
To learn more, read the full press release below, printed with permission from Celine Hechard, PhD, VP Business Development & Marketing at Pluriomics B.V.
Pluriomics in €2M alliance to develop in vitro heart failure models
Leiden, The Netherlands, May 2016 — Pluriomics, a Dutch biotech company focusing on the development of fully functional human stem cell-based assay systems, today announced that it will lead a €2.0 million Eurostars consortium for the development of a novel in vitro organ-on-a-chip heart failure model for drug discovery and development.
In this 3 years project, named HeartCHIP, Pluriomics will leverage its unique expertise in cardiac disease modeling and work in close collaboration with the German company ibidi GmbH, a leading supplier of cell-based assays, and the Erasmus University Medical Centre Rotterdam, located in The Netherlands. The partners within the HeartCHIP consortium will combine their unique proprietary technologies to develop extensive new knowledge and co-develop a breakthrough cardiac phenotypic screening platform. Pluriomics, together with the Erasmus University Medical Centre Rotterdam (Erasmus MC), will develop human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived heart failure models that will be used for biomarker detection and clinical validation. ibidi will provide organ-on-a-chip technology. Technologies will be combined to develop a high-content cardiomyocyte screening platform to test the preclinical efficacy of novel drugs in restoring cardiac function with a high predictive value.
“This project will enable Pluriomics to further expand its portfolio with clinically relevant patient stem cell-derived cardiac disease models that are of interest for our customers’ cardiovascular disease drug discovery & development programs”, said Stefan Braam, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Pluriomics.
Marijn Vlaming, PhD, VP Technology at Pluriomics: “The development of in vitro human cardiac disease technologies which combine throughput and content will be a great step forward and will significantly increase our capabilities to study the origin of various cardiac diseases and how they can be treated.”
About Heart Failure
The heart’s inability to meet circulatory demands, i.e. heart failure, is a serious medical condition with a prevalence of 1-2% in developed countries. Pharmaceutical companies need predictive in vitro models for heart failure patient groups as alternatives for animal models for cost-effective and successful drug development. Current models do not mimic the human heart sufficiently.
About the Eurostars Programme
The Eurostars programme is funded by EUREKA member countries and the European Union Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. For more information please visit:http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/eurostars-programme
About Pluriomics
Pluriomics is an innovative Dutch company focusing on the production and industrialization of high-quality, fully functional hiPS cells-derived cardiovascular cell types and on the development and realization of electrophysiology-, biochemistry- and contraction-based assays for predictive safety pharmacology, toxicology testing and efficacy screening.
For more information please visit: www.pluriomics.com