MPS Resources Section

NIH RePORTER · NIH · U2C · $160,266 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

The overall goal of the Pittsburgh TraCe (Pitt-TraCe) is to qualify our patient-derived structured, biomimetic liver Microphysiology Systems (MPS) platform in 4 contexts of use (CoUs) as drug development tools (DDTs) that will be made commercially available. The goal of the MPS Resources Section is to establish the sources and Quality Control (QC) of the Center materials and resources, which will include a) the Resource Section work plan and workflow, b) materials and resource validation and QC, and c) commercial partners. Center resources include expertise in FDA qualification, MPS technologies, cell and molecular biology, automation, informatics, statistics, analytics, computational and systems biology, and commercialization. Material resources include facilities involved in MPS sample preparation and measurements, reagents, MPS devices, primary and iPSC- derived cells, and clinical resources including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Fatty Liver Obesity and Wellness Clinic (UPMC FLOW Clinic). Collaborations with ThermoFisher as well as others, will yield materials including cells, media, and reagents critical for the qualification of the DDTs. Through a collaborative effort with Nortis Biosciences, Inc. and BioSystics, Inc., we will implement a medium throughput, high content and automated platform that integrates the BioSystics Analytics Platform (BioSystics-AP) at the front end for study design, review of existing data, recording of study protocols (including all metric parameters, fluidic control, chip handling/management) and at the back end of the automation for data capture, analysis and computational modeling. The BioSystics-AP will capture, manage and disseminate metadata, data, summary data, and standard operating procedures (SOPs). We have named this complete platform the Automated Biomimetic Analytic MPS (ABAMPS) platform. The ABAMPS platform creates a workflow through the integration of the BioSystics-AP and the Nortis Gen2 automation platform. The ABAMPS platform will create a commercially available, efficient and reproducible platform that utilizes the vLAMPS DDT.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10815365
Project number
1U2CTR004863-01
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
Principal Investigator
Lawrence A Vernetti
Activity code
U2C
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$160,266
Award type
1
Project period
2024-01-01 → 2028-12-31