Hurel Corporation (North Brunswick, N.J.), a leading developer of cell-based tissue constructs and microfluidic assay platforms, which can improve the speed and accuracy of pre-clinical prediction in drug development, announced an ambitious new research grant program to spur innovation in the use of its cell-based models in pharmaceutical and industrial toxicological research. The company said it is prepared to commit in aggregate up to $150,000 under the grant program, and that it intends to invite qualified academic research scientists to submit funding proposals for projects that will seek to trail-blaze new uses and applications for Hurel’s high-functioning, long enduring hepatic tissue cultures.
Hurel focuses on the production of 3-D tissue cultures that simulate and predict the in vivo function of the liver and other organs. The company recently launched its Hurelhuman, Hureldog and Hurelrat product lines, which are created from the primary liver cells of the respective species. Hureldog is the first characterized, 3-D tissue culture product based on primary liver cells from the canine species.
“Over the past three decades, my colleagues and I have developed and tested several different hepatic tissue constructs, many of which are utilized by researchers today, such as gel-overlay hepatocyte cultures and micropatterned co-cultures,” said Martin Yarmush, MD, PhD, Hurel’s chief scientific adviser. “In the evolution of these hepatic models, the Hurel co-culture is the first that we deliberately engineered for use in industrial scientific research, where manufacturing efficiency, ability to replicate results, and ease of use in the lab are virtues of an importance equal to that of the cellular competency of the model itself. With such a ‘workhorse’ platform in hand, we are intensely curious to see how our academic colleagues, drawing on their knowledge and their scientific imaginations, may seek to probe its capabilities and push the envelope of its potential applications.”
The formal Call for Proposals document is currently being finalized and Hurel anticipates releasing it in late October, 2013.
Date: September 26, 2013
Source: Hurel Corporation
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
