Dr Francis S. Collins, Director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), highlighted LiverChip during the 2014 Karl Taylor Compton Lecture on October 28 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his lecture entitled “Exceptional Opportunities in Biomedical Research” Collins featured work by MIT Professor Linda Griffith, S.E.T.I. Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering and inventor of LiverChip, highlighting a $6M NIH-sponsored research program led by Griffith and Professor Alan Wells, University of Pittsburgh, in which LiverChip is being used to examine the early stages of metastatic seeding and dormancy in the liver.
CN Bio signed an exclusive licence for LiverChip with MIT in 2012. Liver disease models including cancer metastasis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and steatohepatitis (NASH), and liver infection (Hepatitis B/C) are under development through initiatives sponsored by CN Bio and award bodies including the NIH, Defence Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) and UK Technology Strategy Board.
CN Bio is partnering with pharmaceutical companies to optimise the design and development of drugs for liver diseases including Hepatitis B.