Partnership with lab-on-a-chip startup will help simulate complex disease states and accelerate drug discovery.

Modelling disease microenvironments 

Glasgow-based startup ScreenIn3D specialises in miniaturising and screening 3D complex models of disease. Their patented UpScale^3D lab-on-a-chip technology, combined with physiologically relevant 3D disease models mimicking in vivo pathology, offers new opportunities for accelerating drug discovery. 

ScreenIn3D’s technology supports screening of a variety of cell types and is continuously tested for use with different therapeutic modalities. Mimicking disease microenvironments (like the tumour microenvironment) using patient-derived 3D co-cultures and explants can better predict drug efficacy. 

ScreenIn3D’s technology delivers 3D screening assays that generate 20 times more data than existing methods, replicating dynamic disease microenvironment conditions. This is beneficial to assess molecule efficacy and enhance candidate selection, reducing the uncertainty associated with other preclinical models.

When combined with RoukenBio’s advanced expertise in immunology, immuno-oncology, immune cell therapies, biophysics, molecular biology, and cell line engineering, the capabilities of both companies will be transformed, providing high-value translational data to our customers.

Partnership for better predictive models 

Unfortunately, failure at the clinical stages of drug development is common. With the FDA Modernisation Act 2.0 advocating for the use of human tissue-derived in vitro systems, there is a need for more representative human disease models.

The partnership will enable us to generate high-throughput, patient-derived explants and 3D multicellular models that more accurately emulate the disease states our customers aim to treat. Additionally, we are developing clinical relationships that allow us to ethically access surplus human disease state tissues.

This is especially important in immunotherapies. The complex interplay of immune cells, target cells, matrix and stromal components can impact the effect of a therapeutic system in a way that’s difficult to discern in more simplified systems. 

Michele Zagnoni, ScreenIn3D CEO and Co-Founder, says: 

“[By] combining our lab-on-a-chip platform and 3D culture know-how with RoukenBio’s immunology and functional assay expertise, we will be able to provide preclinical services to quickly create translational data.”

Alex Sim, Chairman and Co-Founder continues: 

“We are excited to combine the companies’ strengths, creating physiologically relevant and miniaturised models for customers.”

Our Chief Business Officer, Dr Adele Hannigan, explains: 

“The partnership will allow us to maximise the amount of data we can obtain from small biopsies; enabling us to test higher numbers of therapeutic candidates than previously possible. 

We will be able to screen and characterise novel small and large molecules, as well as cell therapies using a variety of conditions and disease state tissue types. We will couple this technology with RoukenBio's high content, orthogonal readouts and existing human immunology expertise, to generate more informative data sets. 

This should de-risk candidate selection for our customers and advance promising therapeutic candidates to the clinic.”

Our Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Agapitos Patakas, says: 

“Combining ScreenIn3D's state-of-the-art tissue explant and 3D culture microfluidic platforms, with our comprehensive portfolio of advanced in vitro cell models, will significantly enhance our research service capabilities.

Tissue-based models are invaluable to translational research, as they provide critical insight into the complexity of human disease. We will now be able to develop models that more accurately recreate in vivo conditions, providing data of unparalleled translational value.

Such models are crucial for informed decision-making during preclinical development improving the chance of clinical success.”