HUB and Pfizer will collaborate on human gut organoids for IBD

HUB today announced a collaboration with Pfizer Inc. that aims to develop a Human Gut Organoid Technology Platform to aid in research related to potential treatments for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

This collaboration between Pfizer and HUB seeks to develop an IBD-specific human gut organoid platform that, if successful, could potentially aid in the target identification and drug screening process.

Organoids are mini-organs grown in cell culture from patient biopsies that faithfully recapitulate the genetic and phenotypic characteristics of tissues from which they were derived.

IBD represents a heterogeneous group of inflammatory diseases of the colon and small intestine. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the principal types of inflammatory bowel disease.

“IBD is a multifactorial disease with a host of genetic and environmental factors, such as gut microbiota, all playing a role. The exact role of specific genetic or environmental factors remains largely unknown, and an important reason is the lack of a relevant model system to study such a complex disease,” said Dr. Robert Vries, HUB. “We believe that HUB organoids can address multiple facets of disease and have demonstrated value as models for screening and validation of innovative medicines.”

Source: HUB