High throughput microfluidic gut-on-a-chip model for drug discovery and target validation in inflammatory bowel disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of chronic relapsing inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Patients suffering from IBD have presently limited options in terms of treatment due to the lack of physiologically-relevant models to study IBD.
This study reports a novel high throughput microfluidic gut-on-a-chip composed exclusively of human primary material. Human primary intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) can be grown in a polarized and differentiated epithelium in the OrganoPlate® platform. We are able to induce an IBD-like inflammatory state by exposing IEC to a cytokine trigger or by culturing them together with activated immune cells.
We hope that this model offers an increased relevance compared to existing in vitro models and that it will be suitable to validate potential IBD drug targets and implement it in Galapagos’ drug discovery process on a daily basis.
Claudia Beaurivage is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Ph.D candidate at Galapagos
Claudia Beaurivage is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Ph.D candidate at Galapagos, a clinical-stage biotechnology company. Previously, she obtained her Master degree with highest distinctions at the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada where she worked on a mouse model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She joined Galapagos in 2016 to pursue an industrial Ph.D where she continued her work on IBD by setting up a high throughput microfluidic model of the human intestine. Once she obtains her Ph.D from the University of Sheffield, she hopes to be able to develop Organ-on-a-chip models for several indications to further support the drug discovery process.
References:
Claudia Beaurivage1,2, Yee Xiang Chang1,3, Cindy Loomans1, Kai Erdmann2, Jan Stallen1, Richard Janssen1
1Galapagos BV, the Netherlands
2University of Sheffield, United-Kingdom
3Utrecht University, the Netherlands
