Re:Build was approached by a small team of tissue engineers, biologists, and senior leadership to help develop the hardware platform that accompanies their novel biological approach. The team designed and built physical prototypes, enabling the tissue engineers to run experiments and refine their process. Our partnership extended beyond the initial prototype phase. We designed the production instrument and its consumable, and now serve as the production supplier for both. This full-scope collaboration helped bring the innovative biology from the lab to a finished product.
The Details
Industry
Medical
CAPABILITIES APPLIED
Limitations of Animal and In Vitro Testing
Despite the limitations of animal and in vitro testing, the industry standard for preclinical drug discovery continues to rely on animal or simplified in vitro models. Unfortunately, these methods often lack the sophistication to provide clinically relevant, longitudinal data. To address this challenge, the client developed a new hardware platform to enable their novel biology approach. This platform centers on creating a human tissue culture model, or a “organ-on-a-chip,” that more closely mimics human physiology than traditional models. The platform needed to be a small-volume, recirculating system that could be easily operated by a variety of scientists, from tissue engineers to biologists. This design allows for the long-term study of human tissue and its response to pharmaceuticals, providing data that is both more accurate and more predictive of clinical outcomes.
Re:Build worked closely with the client team to determine the technical and user needs for a variety of tissue chamber designs, including those for liver, muscle, and kidney. Using COMSOL, we evaluated and refined each concept before creating physical test chambers. Our team used Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) techniques to ensure each design could be quickly and affordably produced. This allowed us to support the full process, from initial technology development to low-volume manufacturing.
The result is a fully productized liver chamber featuring an injection-molded, laser-welded chip and a machined instrument with industrial design.
We operated at a rapid pace by implementing a two-week design-build-biological test cycle, which kept up with the client’s fast-paced testing schedule. Our in-house manufacturing capabilities allowed for quick and frequent design changes informed directly by test results. This streamlined process accelerated the development cycle and ultimately led to a final product now being sold to customers. Our approach and expertise transformed the initial proof-of-concept into a final product. The client has launched their commercial product line and is now empowering other companies to speed up their preclinical drug discovery with this technology.
