Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FLAMIN-GO (From pathobioLogy to synoviA on chip: driving rheuMatoId arthritis to the precisioN medicine GOal)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-01-01 do 2022-06-30
Although conventional clinical trials might address those issues related to response/non-response of powerful expensive drugs, this approach is time consuming and ethically doubtful as part of the patients still fail to achieve disease benefit. RA patients and their families also often face financial burdens due to high drug costs. Thus, it is crucial to find an alternative strategy that can deliver innovative trials, which will reduce the costs for R&D as well as for patient’s families and the health care system in general.
Based on the above premises, FLAMIN-GO project aims at providing solutions to the following questions: 1) How can we improve the screening for new RA drugs by reducing the time and costs? 2) How can we abrogate any occurrence of side effects in RA patients? 3) Can we identify new biomarkers or therapeutic targets for RA?
FLAMIN-GO’s main objective is thus to develop a personalized next-generation joint-on-chip that, by effectively mimicking the complexity of RA joint, will allow performing personalized clinical trials-on-chip.
Organ-on-chip (OoC) represents an emergent technology that might play a transformative part in pharmaceutical R&D. OoC is a microfluidic platform creating controlled microenvironments with vasculature-like perfusion, in which human multicellular structures mimicking the physiological architecture and function of human tissues and organs are integrated. This technology has been developed to substitute in vitro and animal models, which often inaccurately model human physiology.
Specifically, in FLAMIN-GO project the joint-on-chip will be built using the cells isolated from the patients who usually undergo biopsy, required for the follow-up of their RA. The chip will be composed of three units: synovial, inflamed blood vessels and osteochondral. On this 3D model, the current drugs available in the portfolio of FDA-approved medicines and potentially new drugs will be tested. Once the most effective drug is chosen, it could be administrated to the patient in 1-2 months.
The FLAMIN-GO project will explore these questions by drawing together 14 partners from 6 EU countries plus UK, Switzerland and Turkey, including experts from hospital, academia, and industry partners that cover the whole value chain with complementary expertise. The consortium gathers specialists in the fields of rheumatology, material science, tissue engineering, nanotechnology, cell biology and 3D modelling in a cohesive, transdisciplinary, multi-sectorial approach taking on the challenge to drive RA personalized care.