Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OssiGel (Development of patient “Ossicle” for the personalized modelling of bone-developing cancers and therapeutic testing)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-10-01 do 2024-03-31
Cancer is a huge societal concern representing one death out of sixth in 2020. The vast majority of existing cancers emerge or ultimately develop in bones: leukemia, lung, breast, prostate, kidney, bladder. Our bones are thus considered a privileged “harbour” for cancer cells, and this is also associated with a very poor survival prognostic: bone-developing cancers account for ~3 million deaths each year. When at all existing, treatments are poorly effective: 92% of new therapies successful in preclinical testing fail in clinical trials. This urgently calls for the development of models to study cancer and test therapeutics in a more reliable fashion.
One option lies in the engineering of human mini-bones in mice, in order to mimic the patient bone-developing cancer condition. These mini-bones (aka human ossicles) forming in animals consists in miniaturized bone organs composed of the patient own cells, including cancer cells. The human ossicles were proposed as unique technology to study tumour progression but also test therapeutics in an advanced and personalized in vivo setting. However, despite substantial promises, the human ossicle model suffers from a lack of standardization: only 10% of patient-derived cells can successfully form human ossicle. This prevents the large exploitation of human ossicle as a standard model to study bone-developing cancers and establish tailored treatments.
Our project consisted in developing and validating OssiGel as a technology offering the standardized and reproducible formation of human ossicles. We aimed at defining a clear formulation of OssiGel to be characterized in vitro and in vivo. The technology was to be validated using patient cells in order to verify the possibility to form human ossicles out of it. Last, the project also aimed at gaining experience in entrepreneurship and envision the development of a spin-of company.
One option lies in the engineering of human mini-bones in mice, in order to mimic the patient bone-developing cancer condition. These mini-bones (aka human ossicles) forming in animals consists in miniaturized bone organs composed of the patient own cells, including cancer cells. The human ossicles were proposed as unique technology to study tumour progression but also test therapeutics in an advanced and personalized in vivo setting. However, despite substantial promises, the human ossicle model suffers from a lack of standardization: only 10% of patient-derived cells can successfully form human ossicle. This prevents the large exploitation of human ossicle as a standard model to study bone-developing cancers and establish tailored treatments.
Our project consisted in developing and validating OssiGel as a technology offering the standardized and reproducible formation of human ossicles. We aimed at defining a clear formulation of OssiGel to be characterized in vitro and in vivo. The technology was to be validated using patient cells in order to verify the possibility to form human ossicles out of it. Last, the project also aimed at gaining experience in entrepreneurship and envision the development of a spin-of company.
We have identified a formulation leading to the establishment of our OssiGel technology. This has been successfully achieved with robust testing and characterization in vitro leading to the definition of key parameters (viscosity, injectability, threshold of key matrix proteins content) ensuring reliable performance of the final OssiGel product. This was further characterized in vivo, whereby the formation of mini-bone/ossicle could be achieved with the defined formulation. A patent has been deposited and a new application is being prepared.
Moreover, we have successfully developed the team´s entrepreneurship ability. By undertaking courses and following mentorship programs, we now have gained confidence in developing a business. We intend to translate our achievements into an innovation opportunity and now consider the creation of a start-up company as spin-of of our laboratory.
Moreover, we have successfully developed the team´s entrepreneurship ability. By undertaking courses and following mentorship programs, we now have gained confidence in developing a business. We intend to translate our achievements into an innovation opportunity and now consider the creation of a start-up company as spin-of of our laboratory.
Our results led to the development of OssiGel as new technology allowing the standardized formation of human ossicles. This will largely impact the cancer field, as providing a platform to more accurately model bone-developing cancers and test new therapeutics. It also led a commercialization opportunity, with OssiGel being a product that will steer the development of start-up company. Future work will include the finalization of our IP deposition, the continuous validation of OssiGel in multiple cancer contexts and the formal creation of the company.