Neurix: human brain-on-a-chip for drug testing and neuroscience research
New drug compounds created by pharmaceutical companies are first tested in vitro on cells, then in vivo on mice, and finally tested on humans during clinical trials
Yet, 90 percent of drugs fail in clinical trials. This means that only 10 percent of tested compounds benefit to patients who continue suffering from diseases, in addition to the wasted time and efforts by pharmaceutical companies.
The great majority of failures are due to drug toxicity or lack of efficiency on humans, thus suggesting that current tests in vitro on cells or in vivo on mice are poorly representative of human physiology. Indeed, Mice are not humans, and cells cultivated in vitro on flat plastic surface weakly reflect organs: our body is built in 3-dimension.
We manufacture brains-on-a-chip, called Minibrain®, as alternative to animal testing to study the human brain. Minibrain® are generated from human pluripotent stem cells which are grown in 3-dimension, and ultimately differentiated toward brain cells; our brain-on-a-chip is both human and in 3-dimension similarly to our brain.
We propose services for testing neurotoxicity, spreading of viruses, anti-brain cancer drugs, or custom research projects. Alternatively, we also ship the Minibrain® to laboratories, and currently develop the Alzheimer Minibrain® and Multiple sclerosis Minibrain® to update our portfolio.
www.neurix.ch