Organoids – living, 3D multicellular models of human organs – could revolutionize early research and discovery of new medicines. Because organoids mirror human biology more closely than animal models like mice and rats, they are ideal tools for scientists who want to quickly separate out the drug candidates most likely to fail in human clinical trials from those most likely to succeed.
However, scientists have not yet fully embraced organoids in drug discovery because, quite frankly, they’re hard to use. Large-scale cell cultures such as organoids have traditionally demanded 24/7 oversight, including feedings that must be done with precision and at prescribed times, sometimes on weekends, to avoid ruining experiments. Some cell cultures also have to be “passaged,” or broken apart into smaller pieces and then re-seeded into new plates so they have enough room to grow. These hands-on procedures are time-consuming, error-prone, expensive, mundane and repetitive, making organoid studies hard to scale up and reproduce.
Poolbeg Pharma plc (LON:POLB) is a clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company, with a novel capital light clinical model which enables us to develop multiple products faster and more cost effectively than the traditional biotech model.
