# MPS Resources Section

> **NIH NIH U2C** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $160,266

## 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 organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Lawrence A Vernetti
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $160,266
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-01-01 → 2028-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10815365

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10815365, MPS Resources Section (1U2CTR004863-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10815365. Licensed CC0.

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