Last November, Bi/ond, the Organ-on-Chip startup based in Delft, launched the #OOCtransition initiative to promote and accelerate the development of Organ-on-Chip models with the potential to reduce and replace animal testing.
Researchers from all over Europe submitted their abstracts. After a careful selection, the Bi/ond team selected the Tedesco Laboratory at University College London & The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK) as the winner of the competition.
Francesco Saverio Tedesco and his group (www.tedescolab.org) are focusing on skeletal muscle regeneration to develop novel experimental therapies for incurable diseases, such as muscular dystrophies. Due to the lack of biopsy cells and accuracy of animal-based models, they developed platforms to make tridimensional efficient, patient-specific tissues, which can be used to model specific phenotypic results of muscle diseases.
The collaboration with Bi/ond will enable the Tedesco lab to develop a more physiologically relevant muscle model, by combining Tedesco’s expertise in making high-fidelity human skeletal tissues, with the microelectronic know-how developed by the Dutch startup. Tedesco lab and Bi/OND’s overall mission is to accelerate Organ-on-Chip research and develop accurate models by incorporating biological and engineering expertise.
