New $48M grant brings WFIRM's funding for miniaturized organs to over $138M Oct 24, 2024
It’s clear what organization the federal government trusts to advance regenerative medicine technologies, and it’s right here in Winston-Salem.
The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has been chosen for its fourth significant federal grant in less than a year. This time, the grant – from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – is worth up to $48 million.
With an initial funding of $18 million, the eight-year grant will allow WFIRM to study treatments for scar-causing injuries by toxic chemicals using its signature body-on-a-chip technologies. After two years, WFIRM will be eligible to apply for the remaining $30 million.
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WFIRM has received a grant up to $48 million to use its body-on-a-chip platform (pictured). Using miniaturized organs and tissues, researchers can create a system that represents the human body. |
A body-on-a-chip is a miniaturized system of human organs created with regenerative medicine techniques that can model the body’s response to harmful agents, test the effects of new drugs and aid in the development of new therapies.
“[WFIRM] was an obvious choice when we were looking for someone who could model human reactions to these agents that we cannot test on humans,” said Judith Laney, program director of chemical medical countermeasures at BARDA.
If WFIRM receives the full $48 million, it will have received more than $138 million in federal funding for the body-on-a-chip platform since it began development in 2013 with a $24 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. In 2022, WFIRM received a $36 million grant from the DOD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to use the platform to study how viruses infect humans.
The grant announced today builds upon WFIRM’s existing partnership with HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which awarded WFIRM a $30 million grant to study the effects of chlorine gas exposure using body-on-a-chip.
Within the last year, WFIRM has received more than $61 million across three federal grants:
Founded in 2004 by Director Dr. Anthony Atala, WFIRM employs more than 580 today.
In this study, WFIRM will research how toxic chemical agents cause fibrosis, commonly known as scars, on the skin and airways, as most people come into contact with chemicals by breathing them in or touching them, Atala explained.
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| Julie Knight |
"We are excited to continue our partnership with BARDA and further develop the body-on-a-chip models," Atala said. "The work we did with chlorine gas has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of chemical-induced injuries, and this new funding will allow us to apply these insights to develop critical medical countermeasures for chemical agents."
He noted that it is not just soldiers involved in chemical warfare that come into contact with toxic chemicals; people may be harmed by chemical agents in the environment, at work or by accident.
Atala added that the new grant will allow WFIRM to hire more staff, although he did not specify how many.
“The ability to promote the development of medical countermeasures for chemical threats is crucial,” said Sean Murphy, co-lead for the project. “By accurately replicating human responses to toxic chemical exposure, WFIRM’s innovative technology could accelerate the pace of discovery and development of medical countermeasures.”
And researchers are already thinking about how the study have an impact outside of chemical agents, as Atala noted that almost every disease causes scar tissue so the findings could help researchers treat other scars.
Further developing the body-on-a-chip platform will also help refine it to be used to test for other new treatments and drug therapies, leading to a reduction in cost, time and risks associated with traditional early-stage pre-clinical trials, WFIRM said.
Jag har tidigt skrivit om såna här microfluidics chip där Body(Organ)-On-A-Chip tillsammans med Lab-On-A-Chip är de vanligaste. Här nedan en bild på ett sådant Chip hos PHI.
PHI`s kund Novo Nordisk och deras forskare Markus Boosten är hängivna tekniken. Såpass att de genomförde ett webinarium tillsammans med PHI och chiptillverkaren Ibidi,där de berättade om HoloMonitor och den framtagna mjukvaran (assay:er) vid användande av tekniken.
Markus Boosten`s utlåtande om instrumentet har kanske inte alla sett :
WFIRM med nestor Anthony Atala vid rodret framstår som utvalda av den amerikanska staten att ge jänkarna positionen NR1 beträffande Reg Med. PHI kan kanske knacka på professorns dörr och försynt nämna att i detta nya sidoprojekt inom Reg Med finns ett instrument som är alldeles ypperligt att använda? Mvh the99
WFIRM har fått än mer stålar för sin forskning:
NIH awards $5.7 million to Wake Forest University team studying weight loss, pain in older adults
Pengarna är öronmärkta för studier på gamlingar med fetmarelaterade problem som förslitningar av brosk vid knä och höft. Dvs Reg Med lösningar som en utväg för att få dessa obesitys att kunna knalla igen.
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