NeuCyte Awarded a National Institute of Health (NIH) Research Grant
Mountain View, CA, USA, August 14, 2023 - NeuCyte, Inc., an innovative biotechnology company focused on developing novel treatments for neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, announced that the company has been awarded a National Institute of Health Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant in collaboration with University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and Acoustic Bio to develop a microfluidics-based high-throughput drug-screening platform for Alzheimer Disease/Alzheimer Disease-related Dementias (AD/ADRD).
Utilizing the proprietary SynFire® technology from NeuCyte, this grant will fund the development of a mini-brain assembled organoids (assembloids) microfluidics platform to enable drug-screening for AD/ADRD. This 3D brain model, or Microphysiological system (MPS), utilizes a defined cellular composition of mature human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived brain cells (neurons, astrocytes, and microglia) that are combined to form NeuroImmune Assembloids (NIA) of low variance that better mimics the cellular complexity of the brain, phenocopies the in vivo neurodegenerative context of AD/ADRD, and facilitates interrogation of neuroimmune mechanisms. These NeuroImmune Assembloids, first developed in the laboratory of Dr. Erik Ullian (UCSF), will be incorporated into a cost-effective, miniaturized microfluidics-based Organ-on-a-Chip (OoC) platform that does not require automation and overcomes sensitivity limitations associated with current organoid HTS assays. This proprietary miniaturized OoC is developed in collaboration with Acoustic Bio and utilizes a proprietary cyclic olefin copolymer, which facilitates rapid acoustic ejection of NIAs for downstream validation and subsequent analysis.
About NeuCyte, Inc
NeuCyte is a biotechnology company focused on CNS drug discovery. Based on its proprietary SynFire®technology for generating human iPSC-derived neural cells, NeuCyte has developed relevant functional human cell-based platforms for target identification and validation, efficacy testing, neurotoxicity assessment, and disease modeling. The team is actively pursuing drug discovery programs for Alzheimer disease, ALS, Epilepsy, Fragile X Syndrome and more.
For more information, visit www.neucyte.com.
About Acoustic Bio
Acoustic Bio is pioneering technologies that automate and scale patient-derived organoids (PDOs) screening for personalized drug development. Our innovative platform integrates microfluidics, live imaging, acoustic technology, and machine learning to deliver a first-in-class high-throughput Organoid-on-a-Chip screening platform. It is designed for small and large biotech and pharma, providing a cost-effective solution to generate large-scale data to better identify new drugs that will work in patients.
For more information, visit www.acoustic.bio
Contact information:
Wayne Poon, PhD
NeuCyte, Inc
319 N Bernardo Avenue
Mountain View, CA