# A Humanized Organ Plate Paradigm for High Throughput Alzheimer's disease Therapeutics

> **NIH NIH R43** · BIOPICO · 2022 · $4,663

## Abstract

A Humanized Organ Plate Paradigm for High Throughput Alzheimer's disease Therapeutics
Abstract
Preclinical drug discovery research for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is hampered by the lack of sufficient preclinical
models. Although several drugs have shown promise in animal models to some extent, many human clinical
trials of therapies for AD have failed. Therefore in vitro models using human-derived cell lines or patient-derived
genetically-manipulated human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) that overexpress the different isoforms of
β-amyloid have shown interest. These hiPSCs with the acquisition of full cellular functionality, microenvironment
mechanostructural cues and mimicking vascular defects observed in patients with AD are in development.
Further, blood-brain-barrier (BBB) integrity that prevents neurotoxins from entering the brain and bidirectional
molecular communications between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system, are critical for
AD therapeutic strategy in the laboratory models. These models with 3D perfused engineered micro-sized organ
systems can help costly and risky drug testing with quantitative and mechanistic data. However, high throughput
portable passive system that can connect multiple organs and provide quantitative pharmacokinetics data, is still
to be realized. Therefore, Biopico Systems Inc teams with UC Irvine to propose a Humanized Organ Plate
Paradigm (HOPP) for high throughput Alzheimer's disease therapeutics that can accurately and reproducibly
mimic the AD phenotype in vivo and be amenable to high-content screening and assay applications. With the
preliminary results from the patent-pending organ platform and measurement instrumentation, Biopico will utilize
existing drugs that have failed in clinical trials and given positive indications to perform proof-of-concept of our
platform. The Phase I research aims are to: (i) Develop functional blood-brain-barrier in vitro pharmacological
HOPP system in high throughput format, (ii) Integrate multi-organs for morphological, functional, gene
expression & metabolic markers metrics and (iii) Validate HOPP system using pharmacokinetic modeling and in
vitro to in vivo extrapolation. The successful completion of these aims will provide a strong foundation for
developing a commercial organ system in Phase II to customers developing therapeutic agents for AD. Biopico's
vision is to commercialize the largescale application of the screening assay to accelerate the process of finding
a disease-modifying therapy.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10551783
- **Project number:** 3R43AG073040-01S1
- **Recipient organization:** BIOPICO
- **Principal Investigator:** John Collins
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $4,663
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10551783

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10551783, A Humanized Organ Plate Paradigm for High Throughput Alzheimer's disease Therapeutics (3R43AG073040-01S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10551783. Licensed CC0.

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