Industry's first catalogue of in vitro human tissue assays

Contract research organisation Biopta has launched the first catalogue of assays based on human functional tissues. The catalogue serves to provide the scientific community with ready access to assays that improve the prediction of safety, absorption and efficacy of drug candidates in humans.

Ex vivo human tissue studies play a key part in drug development, providing pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a more predictive human model earlier in the development process. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have, up until now, depended solely on animal models; however, Biopta’s access to fresh functional human biomaterials means that early human tissue testing is becoming a routine part of preclinical drug discovery.

Biopta’s research has generated a database of over 60 assays in a range of human fresh tissues - the first in vitro library of human functional pharmacology using intact tissues. The company aims to fill the knowledge gap in preclinical testing by providing phenotypically accurate assays that measure drug responses from healthy and diseased human tissue.

“The literature on human preclinical pharmacology is unacceptably sparse and too many decisions on early-stage compounds are made without considering translation to human biology,” said Dr David Bunton, Biopta’s CEO. “By illustrating the wide range of tissues and functional endpoints that are possible in human functional tissues, we hope to raise awareness that drug discovery can be de-risked at an early stage.”

“This library also serves as a valuable searchable resource for experimenters seeking human translational research,” added Dr Ruth McLaughlin, business development M=manager at Biopta. “We will be continuing to add tissue types, functional biomarkers of drug response and different mechanisms of drug action over the coming months.”

The catalogue can be found at http://www.biopta.com/catalogue_search.cfm.