3D Microfluidic Platform for in vitro Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) Culture

Poor drug candidates are often identified late in the drug development process (e.g., in the preclinical and clinical phases) and contribute significantly to the high cost and low yield of drug discovery. As a result, new tools are needed to accelerate the assessment of drug candidate toxicity earlier in the drug development process. To address this Chemical/Bio Defense (CBD) need, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new three-dimensional Microfluidic Platform for in vitro Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) Culture (3DMicStem) for high-throughput screening of drug toxicities. This high-throughput platform is based on HSC culture in a multiwell microchamber plate, followed by two end-point assays as measurement of toxicity. This produces high-content toxicity-relevant information that accurately predicts the impact of the drug on human toxicology. In Phase I, POC demonstrated the feasibility of 3DMicStem as a human tissue model system for drug toxicity screening by designing a proof-of-concept study for HSC culture and end-point assays. In Phase II, POC plans to further develop and optimize the platform prototype using drugs with known toxicities and interactions as validation.