Increasing The Efficiency Of Drug Development With Preclinical Testing Using Human Intestinal Stem Cells

By Ron Laethem, Ph.D., Director of Biology, Altis Biosystems

Due to a lack of robust in vivo gut models, animal studies are generally required to evaluate gut toxicity. However, these studies can be lengthy and expensive and may not accurately recapitulate the behavior of the human gastrointestinal tract. Drugs are thus often developed with undesired gut side effects that are not apparent until clinical trials.

Organ-on-a-chip models are the closest in vitro options, but they still have many limitations. More efficient development of drugs with attractive side effect profiles requires robust, easy-to-use, cost-effective in vitro gut models that are physiologically representative of the human intestinal tract and thus predictive of in vivo behavior. RepliGut® tissue constructs have been designed to meet this need.