Servier and Poietis announce scientific partnership in 4D bioprinting of liver tissues
Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical company, and Poietis, a leader in the production of living bioprinted tissues, have announced a scientific partnership to use Poietis’s 4D bioprinting technology for the development and production of liver tissues.
This partnership seeks to improve the detection of drug-induced liver lesions as early as the preclinical trial phase. Such lesions are rare but can have serious consequences for patients. This hepatotoxic potential is poorly detected by current preclinical models. Beyond animal models, various models based on human cell cultures are available, but most lack longevity and complexity, which limits their usefulness in toxicology. Poietis’s 4D bioprinting technology has emerged as an innovative technology capable of helping to overcome these limitations.
The partnership is based on the reproduction of a new, complex, bioprinted human liver tissue containing lines of human liver cells and immunocompetent cells within a defined architecture designed to imitate human liver tissue in vitro.
“This project will advance our understanding of hepatotoxicity mechanisms and allow us to offer tests to detect, as early as possible, any adverse effects when developing our medicinal products,” said Nancy Claude, Director of Non-Clinical Safety at Servier. “We can expect to see fewer undesirable hepatic effects in patients as early as the clinical test phase.”
“This new technology’s ability to include different cell types within a single extracellular matrix will make it possible to recreate a microtissue in which inflammatory response and tissue remodeling phenomena can be studied in vitro,” explained Hélène Aerts, in charge of Biologie Servier’s in vitro platform.
“We are thrilled to announce the launch of this partnership with Servier. Their non-clinical safety team is highly competent when it comes to using the full range of in vitro toxicology tools, and it is very gratifying to have been selected as a partner in their search for new cellular models and new techniques. The developments we are planning will strive for greater precision, and the associated application requirements, in which control over morphogenesis and standardization issues, are essential,”said Bruno Brisson, General Manager and Chief Business Officer at Poietis.
“This long-term partnership to develop liver tissue with bioprinting technology is an important step in the deployment of 4D bioprinting in the pharmaceutical industry. Following our collaboration with KUL on cartilage bioprinting for the purposes of tissue repair, this new scientific partnership with Laboratoires Servier is in line with the strategy of Poietis, which aims to extend the use of its technology beyond its initial applications in dermocosmetics,”dded Dr. Fabien Guillemot, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at Poietis.